Posted on 08/20/2006 9:54:42 AM PDT by dirtboy
With United Nations signaling that nationhood is passé, other countries will need proxy militias.
-- snip --
There are good reasons for a cease-fire: the innocent lives lost, the destruction of towns and infrastructure, the fragility of the democratic experiment in Lebanon. And there's a slight - believe it when you see it - possibility of a disarmed Hezbollah if the beefed-up U.N. presence in southern Lebanon materializes.
But here are the main messages to Israel from 1701:
Defend yourself against the terrorists of Hezbollah and the world will blame you for the violence.
Strike too hard - disproportionately - and the world will urge a cease-fire, expecting you to honor it although your enemy pledged in the 1980s, "Our struggle will end only when [Israel] is obliterated. We recognize no treaty with it, no cease-fire, and no peace agreements, whether separate or consolidated."
Expect to be condemned if you threaten Hezbollah's sponsors, Syria and Iran - that would be widening the war, after all - but don't expect the world to rebuke them for arming and financing the militia-for-hire they use against the "Benefit, Honour and Advantage" of another nation-state. Neither nation is even mentioned in 1701.
-- snip --
These Western militias would have rules, of course. The U.N. may wink and nod at the slaughter of civilians and rhetoric of genocide, but that doesn't mean others can stomach it. For example, maybe these Western militias would only target the leaders and financiers of international terror. Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute says as much in a recent piece arguing that the U.S. government should lift its ban on assassinations: "Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad might be far less willing to facilitate the supply of Hezbollah and other terrorist proxies if they knew that the cost of their actions might be their own lives."
If a militia mission goes awry, the West can simply mouth pieties about "freedom fighters" and the "legitimate aspirations of a people." If, however, a terrorist leader is actually killed, the West can tsk-tsk along with the rest of the world. But only briefly. For after the mourning period, expect swift U.N. action against Western non-state actors who are not "entertaining a good and faithful Neighborhood."
The God-fearing, Bible-believing men of the South and Southwest would make a great Christian Army. Don't laugh...when our survival depends on it, it will happen.
"...And there's a slight - believe it when you see it - possibility of a disarmed Hezbollah..."
Never, never, ever, ever going to happen.
Fight fire with FIRE
"Unintended Consequences" -- Big time! All you need is just a 'few good men.'
Well, we could start at sea by announcing our withdrawal from the treaties which forbid the granting of letters of marque and reprisal, and Congress could authorize the outfitting of privateers to harry the shipping of enemy nations.
Hard to believe this appeared in the Inquirer. Their chief hand-wringer Trudy Rubin must be aghast that this appeared on the same pages as her whiny column today.
I was thinking just yesterday that, in a time of asymmetric warfare, that we should go back to assasination and intel head games. If the other side wants to fight dirty, we get dirtier. And we have the toys to do just that - UAVs with Hellfires. Increase the pucker factor tenfold for the tyrants.
Islamic "militias" are the core of the problem. Although they have a growing political role in the legitimate governments of the ME, they are an independent military force that can act on their own volition against another country in a terrorist capacity. They are not held accountable to international law or rules of war as they are not a nation. Their host nation can simply disavow the tactics of the group and whine that they are incapable of controlling them and that reprisals against them is "disproportionate." Yet the nation that the militia is acting upon in a terrorist capacity is held accountable to all the high standards of a nation at war for the tactics and actions of its military force. What a strategy!
But this is what it will have to come down to in the end, isn't it? Assuming conventional methods fail against the terrorists—and it seems too many limp-wristed Westerners are determined to see this happen—the last line of defence/resistance will be the average citizen who decides a prayer rug and burka isn't in his or her future.
I can easily envision a future where the blue states fall under the Sharia, with cowardly leftists fleeing to the South and heartland expecting those hated gun-toting red staters to defend them...or maybe buy themselves more appeasement time.
I'm sick of our guys having to go by politically correct rules while the enemy does as it pleases.
This has happened in every recent war and we never seem to catch on, thanks to the liberal media.
I know I shouldn't, but I found that premise a little on the alluring side (now, for the CIA/FBI/NSA/etc - I'm not saying I would advocate it or carry it out or anything like that, so do not waste your time dredging up my tax returns for the last 10 years. Spend that time looking for the REAL bad guys. Had to say that since some of our guys tend to strip-search grannies instead of doing what is really necessary to protect the country).
Anyways, that movie had an interesting premise.
"The God-fearing, Bible-believing men of the South and Southwest would make a great Christian Army. Don't laugh...when our survival depends on it, it will happen."
Imagine the look on Pinch Sulzbergers face, waking up and seeing masked gunmen ready to cut off his head.
The obvious militia are the Lebanese Christians. They far outnumber the Shiites, and if given the weapons and training would be a better army for Lebanon than the regular army.
There are several good reasons that the US could arm and train them, and their natural contention would not be against Israel, but against the Hezbollah and Syria.
All so that Washington could declare us "a nation of laws" - while 15M Illegal Immigrants run free and polticians cower from the drive-by media and ACLU/CAIR.
Show the u.n. the door and then proceed to systematically destroy every terror cell, camp, cache, enabler and sympathiser known or suspected. Apologise for nothing except not doing it sooner.
Sounds like a good idea to me ... but if the media ever suspected that the U.S. was supporting them, they'd raise hell. Remember their fury about Reagan's support of the Contras in Nicaragua, and having the stupid Iranians provide the funding?
Count me in. The sooner the better.
I'm afraid you're right ... remember Clinton's pursuit of the dreaded Michigan Militia while the Muslims were bombing the WTC, the Embassies in Africa, the USS Cole, etc?
Not cut off his head -- maybe handcuff him to a bicycle rack outside of Fox News wearing only his underwear.
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