Posted on 07/20/2006 4:23:43 AM PDT by IrishMike
No sooner had Israel raised its hand in self-defense Finland, speaking as the rotating president of the European Union, denounced it for “the disproportionate use of force.” This position, echoed by France, Spain, the United Nations, and others, is wrong legally, morally, and strategically. From a legal standpoint, Israel is the victim of multiple unprovoked aggressions. It withdrew entirely from Lebanon in 2000 and from Gaza in 2005. (Both of these occupations had come about as acts of self-defense: the former against rocket fire from Lebanon in 1982 and the latter against a war of annihilation declared by Egypt in 1967.) From the time of its withdrawal from Gaza, not a single day had passed without rockets being fired into Israel. Now from the north as well as the south, Israel finds hundreds of rockets being fired across its border. Even if these were aimed at military installations, it would be a clear-cut act of war. To make it worse, these rockets are aimed randomly at cities and other civilian population centers, making them not only acts of war but war crimes.
In the face of this criminal aggression, Israel has an absolute right to defend itself by making war against those who are attacking it. In the south this means against the Palestinian Authority. In the north it means fighting Lebanon. Of course, Israel has not been attacked by the army of Lebanon but rather by the militia of Hezbollah. Israel’s counterattacks are focusing on Hezbollah installations but are also aimed at Lebanon itself. This is tragic, but it may be inescapable, and it is certainly lawful: It is a well established principal of international law that a state is responsible for any armed attacks that originate from its territory.
(Excerpt) Read more at article.nationalreview.com ...
Just once, I would like someone, anyone in the media to ask these clowns.."OK, what, in your opinion, would be a PROPORTINATE response by Israel?"
...Any response by Israel would be an over reaction.
Diplomacy is the answer and there's money to be made.
So when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor we should have bombed one of their harbors and called it good?
Liberalism is a mental disorder...
If you grab my wife, I won't grab you back - I will pound you mercilessly.
...The use of disproportionate force is what hastens the end of conflicts and makes enemies think twice before attacking.
It worked for Reagan, ended the cold war.
MAD
Mutually Assured Destruction
Great FReeper comments bump!
Thank you for posting this article. For anyone interested in an excellent book on the history of socialism, I recommend Muravchik's book, HEAVEN ON EARTH: THE RISE AND FALL OF SOCIALISM. It's so well written that I use it with my teens in our homeschool Modern History class.
"One does not need to read a book to see merits of socialism; one merely needs to look at the chaos that exists today in the U.S. - corporate greed, outsourcing of educated middle-class labor to line the pockets of a few ultra-rich as the country hemorrhages entire professions and salaried positions that are unlikely to return in any form, globalization and the race to the bottom (just to name a few) - to realize that the majority of this country's population (which has the courage to admit to itself that it isn't part of the top 1% and almost inevitably never will be) stands to gain more from some level of socialism than it chances to lose. Having the requisite resources/intellect/social standing that the vast majority of the population is unlikely to partake in/be part of (and it would well behoove itself to admit this fact), the ones who truly profit from laissez-faire capitalism are indeed modern day aristocrats; and they're laughing all the way to the bank while reading a book like this."
And just what, pray tell, would they consider proportionate?
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