COMMENTARY: History often doesn’t turn out the way plotters think it will — and war, once launched, has its own infernal, pitiless logic.
Did the Serbian nationalists who murdered an Austrian archduke in Sarajevo in 1914 know that their actions would lead to millions of deaths and the destruction of four great and ancient empires? Probably not, but that is what happened.
The third anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, is an opportune time to look back at events that are still unfolding and to recall that history often doesn’t turn out the way plotters think it will — and that war, once launched, has its own infernal, pitiless logic.
The Hamas attack that day didn’t just trigger a war; it triggered a series of conflicts that continue. The war in Gaza, from where Hamas crossed over into Israel and wreaked slaughter and mayhem, more or less ended in October 2025. By any military measure, the war was a crushing defeat for Hamas, with almost all of its leadership dead and a victorious Israel now controlling half of the Gaza Strip.
Occasional Israeli strikes on the region continue, and one last week killed several civilians,
