Yesterday Dan Halutz met with a group of retired generals, who told him he should go home in light of the way he ran the war. But no smug, self-confident general as Dan would accede to such demands. Not to demands made by people who can only reason with him, but bear no actual authority over him, anyway.

One of the main criticisms presented to Halutz was that he lacked the necessary experience as a field commander, because he came from the Air Force. His reply to that was that "the shepherd doesn't need to be sheep in order to do his job. This is how it works in nature."

On the face of it, the reply sounds very convincing. After all, the shepherd will never really know what it's like to be sheep, but will lead the herd to the best grazing grounds during the day and best shelter available for the night. But something doesn't quite work with this analogy.

If commanding over an entire army constituted of two main tasks - logistics and shelter - it would have made more sense. Is Halutz insinuating that his job is that simple? If that is the case, then there's no reason why hundreds, if not thousands of other candidates couldn't do a job just as good.

However, I believe Dan would be the first to point out at the complexities and intellectual challenges he faces as the head commander of a modern army. The technological leapfrogs and managerial conundrums he must resolve, the insight and foresight he is required to have. The challenge of leading the army out of the war trauma and into the handling of future threats. A bit more complicated than leading sheep, I'm afraid.

So let's reduce the scope of the analogy from the entire military force to the ground forces fighting in the field. Admittedly, one could claim that soldiers graze (i.e. kill) one half of the day and seek shelter on the other. Any infantryman or armory commander would quite likely take offence in this description, and rightly so.

Fighting in battle is one of the most ancient skills acquired by human kind. It has always required a delicate balance between physical stamina possessed by the young, and wisdom acquired by the experienced (and therefore older) warriors. This element has remained intact throughout ages of technological developments and innumerable changes to the face of the battlefield.

At the end of the day, if you haven't experienced what it's like you wouldn't know what it's like. And Halutz hasn't the experience or the hands-on knowledge. My advice to our General Dan is to leave rhetoric alone. It is disrespectful of his soldiers. A plethora of other means is at his disposal to get out of this blitz without aborting.