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This goes back to the basic question of how do you battle an enemy that has not civilized rules of conduct and is basically a barbarian culture.

The things done on the October raid, the rape, murder, mutilation were done by “terrorists” or barbarians. An elected government like Hamas, that uses its own people as human shields, uses hospitals as cover for military operations, uses grade schools to store military arms, and takes humanitarian food and money to use for military purposes and not help all of its people deserves to be treated like barbarians.

The problem with the countries focusing on the plight of the non-combatant people of Gaza, is that their suffering could end if Hamas would surrender. That has nothing to do with Israeli military objectives. Israel is fighting barbarians who observe no civilized code of conduct and use human shields.

Israel needs to convince the non-combatants of Gaza that Hamas is not a legitimate government and that law, order, and civilization need to be established. I have no problems with the IDF killing or jailing anyone who does not get on board with those principles.

One must be barbaric to fight barbarians. My father fought in the jungles of Japanese held islands in WW2. Virtually no quarter was given to the enemy, because the enemy offered virtually none. In some ways he was deeply troubled by what he needed to do to survive. As they say war is hell.

This goes back to the basic question of how do you battle an enemy that has not civilized rules of conduct and is basically a barbarian culture.

Easy answer. Total war. We did that with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in WWII.

Israel isn't fighting a total war in Gaza. They're doing a lot of damage. Many of Hamas terrorists will get killed. But Netanyahu will lose power in 6 months. Hamas will rebuild (with help from the International Community and Iran) and attack Israel again.

“ Israel needs to convince the non-combatants of Gaza that Hamas is not a legitimate government..”

There are no non-combatants in Gaza. And the people there voted overwhelmingly to put Hamas in charge. Jimmy Carter and the UN declared it a free and fair election so it must be true.

The goal of “total destruction of Hamas” cannot be met regardless of how much indiscriminate violence the Israelis use in Gaza. Netanyahu needs to tone back his goals unless his plan is the killing of all 2 million Palestinians. It’s similar to the total destruction of the Viet Cong, it was never going happen regardless of how many locals were slaughtered in the attempt.

Amen brother. My Dad was there as well including Iwo Jima. He was a good man but clearly affected by his experiences in battle. As kids, especially in our teens, we would attempt to ask him about his experiences. He just couldn’t talk about it other than to say he lost a lot of friends over there.