Human Sacrifice

Each life is precious in the sight of God — and the loss of any innocent life is a moral catastrophe. How then to contend with an enemy whose entire war strategy is built around sacrificing their own civilians?

“We need the blood of women, children, and the elderly [of Gaza]... so it awakens our revolutionary spirit," said Hamas' now-dead leader Ismail Haniyeh in a TV appearance after the October 7th attack...

John Spencer is the chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, co-director of the Urban Warfare Project, host of the Urban Warfare Project Podcast, and a founding member of the International Working Group on Subterranean Warfare. He began his 25-year career in the U.S. Army as a private, saw two combat deployments to Iraq, and retired with the rank of major — and he's a colonel in California State Guard.

Maj. Spencer has taken four research trips to Israel and Gaza since October 7, 2023, making him uniquely qualified to help us understand the fighting that's been happening there — and why Israel's war with Hamas has been so unprecedentedly challenging.

I hope you'll tune in hear this unnerving and enlightening conversation wherever you get your podcasts.