Posted on 09/06/2006 5:10:48 AM PDT by Molly Pitcher
The answer to this question is that since the Powell Doctrine says that the key to winning is the use of "overwhelming force" the only reason you'd want to use "proportional force" is if you want to lose.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Proportional warfare is everlasting warfare.
pinglist.
It's the socialist DBM's attempt at military strategy... don't forget... most of them got into the business to “make a difference”.
Two related essays at:
http://johnib.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/playing-to-win-two-essays-on-civilian-casualties-rules-of-engagment-and-values-guiding-war/
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel.
also Keywords 2006israelwar or WOT [War on Terror]
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...and if not us, then whom? Our children? Our grandchildren? who says we would even make it to grandchildren if we were to allow the muslim extremists to have their way with us.
The abject stupidity of moral equivalence equals moral relativism or an eye for an eye, one of ours for one of yours ought to be apparent to the blind and dumb, except of course stupid seems to negate all attempts at change.
If all nations were held to the moral equivalence standard, then any nation attacking another of greater population would automatically be the loser.
The most interesting and lost on the left, point of this silly doctrine, is that only one side is saddled with the doctrine. The other side is free to wage war by whatever means they deem appropriate.
And by no means lastly, what idiot would tie both hands together before going in to battle. Of course no one with a lick of sense. It really isn't about moral equivalence is it? That is just the excuse. It's really about being antiwar and that little notion will get them in even more trouble, for who I ask you is not antiwar?
I agree 100%.
Which is exactly what those who have been condeming Israel want.
Below find the words of River Rat, he understands:
Americans need to consider carefully the decision for war... Be clear on who their enemy is, and determine to destroy that enemy. Recognize there is no clean, polite or gentlemanly way to kill a stranger. If you are not prepared to kill all those that stand with and support your enemy,then surrender to him,for he has already defeated you. From Freeper River Rat's home page
scorched earth......eliminates the enemy and sends a strong message to all comers.
A "disproportionate" response on the order of 100 to 1 or more is the effective way to prevent others from attacking you. When I hear about "proportionate" responses, I always think of Sean Connery as Malone in The Untouchables and his advice to Elliot Ness: "If they pull a knife, you pull a gun. If they put one of your men in the hospital, you put one of theirs in the morgue..."
the only way to win is to destroy.
the reason for war is to eliminate the enemy. Any one who suggests otherwise must be removed from the debate. Such a person is become the enemy.
The USA since WWII. That is why we have lost just about every war we fought since then. (Korea was at best a tie, and Panama and Grenada could be called wins if they can be called wars. Gulf War I left the job unfinished.)
The idea of proportional repsonse came, I believe, from Kennedy. The world then had a bipolar power structure (tripolar if you believe the non-aligned nations were really nonaligned), with the US and the USSR at the poles. The US and USSR both believed that war with the other would lead to nuclear annihilation of both sides.
Therefore, the idea became to fight limited wars, usually by proxy. You really didn't want a war to get 'hot' enough that the other power would respond in kind, as it was believed that such response would lead inevitably to nuclear war.
Fifty years of such thinking has blinded us to the historical reality that to win, you must destroy the enemy's will to fight. One of the easiest ways to do that is to respond with overwhelming force.
From the terrorist perspective, terrorism is war against democracies and life. It is meant to cause death, suffering and anguish among civilian masses in pursuit of political gain.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: Therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. That thou mayest love the Lord thy God and that thou mayest obey his voice and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for He is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
Deuteronomy 30:19, 20
The terrorists have chosen their god, and it is Satan. We are in a spiritual war, and the Islamofacists are not going to prevail.
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