Martin van Creveld

L'un des avantages d'Internet est que l'on y croise et découvre beaucoup de chercheurs, de penseurs, de théoriciens dont on n'a jamais entendu parler et qui paraissent cependant éclairants. C'est le cas de Martin van Creveld, un historien de la guerre israélien que j'ai découvert à l'occasion d'une recherche sur la technologie (ainsi va la recherche sur Internet qui nous mène là où on n'imaginait pas aller). Il a mauvais esprit, il manie le paradoxe mais ce qu'il dit est souvent très fort comme en témoignent ces quelques citations trouvées dans l'article que lui consacre Wikipedia :

"In addition to writing on military history, he also comments, often pointedly, on contemporary societies and politics.

In a TV interview,^[3], he expressed doubts as to the ability of the Israeli army to defeat the Palestinians, and argued that one would inevitably be perceived as cowardly:

I agree with you. They [Israeli soldiers] are very brave people... they are idealists... they want to serve their country and they want to prove themselves. The problem is that you cannot prove yourself against someone who is much weaker than yourself. They are in a lose/lose situation. If you are strong and fighting the weak, then if you kill your opponent then you are a scoundrel... if you let him kill you, then you are an idiot. So here is a dilemma which others have suffered before us, and for which as far as I can see there is simply no escape. Now the Israeli army has not by any means been the worst of the lot. It has not done what for instance the Americans did in Vietnam... it did not use napalm, it did not kill millions of people. So everything is relative, but by definition, to return to what I said earlier, if you are strong and you are fighting the weak, then anything you do is criminal.

In a September 2003 interview on Israel and the dangers it faces from Iran, the Palestinians and world opinion van Creveld stated “We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets for our air force…. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that will happen before Israel goes under.”^[4]

In the August 21, 2004 edition of the International Herald Tribune he wrote, "Had the Iranians not tried to build nuclear weapons, they would be crazy."^[5] which was quoted by Noam Chomsky ^[6] and cited by John Pilger ^[7].

In 2005, van Creveld made headlines when he said in an interview that the 2003 Invasion of Iraq was "the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 BC sent his legions into Germany and lost them", a reference to the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, (which actually took place in 9 AD). His analysis included harsh criticism of the Bush Administration, comparing the war to the Vietnam war. Moreover, he said that "Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial." ^[8]

In 2007, van Creveld commented that "Iran is the real victor in Iraq, and the world must now learn to live with a nuclear Iran the way we learned to live with a nuclear Soviet Union and a nuclear China.... We Israelis have what it takes to deter an Iranian attack. We are in no danger at all of having an Iranian nuclear weapon dropped on us.... thanks to the Iranian threat, we are getting weapons from the U.S. and Germany."^[9]"

Qui peut dire que ces quelques citations ne donnent pas envie de mieux connaître et de lire cet auteur?