Posted on 08/15/2006 3:33:26 AM PDT by John Carey
Ok, but I think the author was more specific about the civilian casualty count and why with Hez using civilians, it can never be proportional. He also had your point that overwhelming force is needed to win in any case.
I know that. I'm AGREEING with him.
The article argues that Israel DID NOT use too much force.
Allowing a gang to live to fight another day is a threat to everyone. Killing or disarming and incarcerating a thug, especially one with WMD capabilities, is the only solution.
The greatest responsibility of a sovereign nation is?
The greatest responsibility of The United Nations is? (/sarcasm)
Hopefully soon the trap will be sprung, and Israel will get to show these lefties at this rag what REAL CASUALTIES in hezzbutthollastan look like!
Did I mention that islam SUCKS!?
LLS
I completely agree, and frankly, I hope that this "cessation of hostilities" ends VERY soon, so Israel can get on with the job that has been not only left unfinished, but which both the UN force and the Lebanese military has said plainly that they will not undertake.
That is the total disarming of Hizbollah.
Nothing short of that can possibly work long term - or medium term. Unless Hizbollah is disarmed without fail, both the Lebanese Army and the UN force are going to be "knee deep in the big muddy" within weeks or months. It will be UGGGGLY. They ought to stay right out of the way until the job is complete.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Our Declaration of Independence separates us from terrorists.
We Americans believe that man, in fact all mankind, has an expectation, a right, to life. We believe this is an “unalienable right,” in fact a sacred right not granted by man but by a higher power, our Creator and incapable of repudiation. The right to life cannot be taken by another man.
The terrorists don’t believe we, or any man, apparently, has an expectation to life. The terrorist have shown that they can commit, intend to commit and are committed to intentional, indiscriminate killing of innocent strangers.
What greater disparity could there be in the beliefs between the terrorists and ourselves?
Americans see themselves as men with rights “endowed by their Creator.”
Terrorists see America as “the Great Satan.”
There is a gap, in fact an abyss, in values and moral mindset between America and the terrorists.
What makes this so devious, so desperately troubling, is this. A part of the terrorist movement has, will have or wants to have nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The actions of the terrorists to date tell us that they are released from our inhibitions to kill indiscrimately by using nuclear weapons and other WMD.
And the terrorists are being encouraged, fueled and even driven toward the use of WMD by the likes of Iranian President Ahmadinejad, various imams, mosques, madras’s, political activists and others. In fact, throughout Pakistan and other Moslem nations, terror has superseded a religion.
This means, for the terrorists, all treaties, all normal forms of the so called “laws of war,” and all the normal underpinnings of negotiation are off the table.
We need to think very carefully about what this means for the United States and the Western World and where we go from here.
The terrorists are:
--Using liquid explosives carried aboard in hand luggage in their planning to destroy hundreds of passengers in airliners. This since 1995, and it continues.
--Using aircraft as weapons (9-11) and bombing trains and buses (Britain’s 7-7 and Madrid).
--Using Katyusha rockets to bombard Haifa and other targets in Israel. These unguided rockets are intentionally and indiscriminately killing innocent civilians. Close to 4,000 of these used to date; with 250 fired into Israel on Sunday within 24 hours of a UN “cease fire.”
To put this in a nutshell, Israel, has been using a conventional military force bound by restrictions on the indiscriminate killing of civilians, to find and kill people lobbing unguided rockets into their civilian population with no restrictions on their use of indiscriminate killing; a kind of asymmetric warfare of the most heinous sort.
The UN and the media view the opposing forces through one single prism of values: both are brother nations of the world. In fact, there seems to be a media bias toward Hezbollah (not a nation at all). And Kofi Annan wasted no time in saying Israel “intentionally” killed UN observers during the conflict.
The terrorists, media and the UN tend to handcuff the west within its own values even more, while the other side feels empowered. Reuters news service participated in the chicanery last week by publishing doctored photos detrimental to Israel.
And the screaming rhetoric of Aljazeera reminds us that the other side doesn’t play by the same rules as the west – freedom of the press without checks and balances.
In a story in the Los Angeles Times by Ashraf Khalil on August 1, Khalil detailed how the Israelis are also phoning innocent civilians on the civilians’ cell phones to warn them of impending danger due to military action. Even as they drop leaflets to warn civilians, Israel has moved humanitarian care to a new level. But gotten little credit.
--On August 10, former Israeli Prime Minister Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters that Iran’s President Ahmadinejad is working on nuclear weapons and “eventually after crying wolf, you face the wolf, and this wolf has nuclear teeth, and it will bite, of that I’m sure.”
This is the same President Ahmadinejad that appeared on “60 Minutes” August 13, claiming that the UN was only serving US needs; said last autumn that the Jewish state had to be wiped off the face of the earth; is defying the United Nations while he does nuclear research that most experts believe is intended to make a nuclear bomb. This is the same President Ahmadinejad that is arming Hezbollah and developing his own long range ballistic missiles.
A few days ago, Mr. Bernard Lewis, professor emeritus at Princeton, wrote in the Wall Street Journal, “During the Cold War, both sides possessed weapons of mass destruction, but neither side used them, deterred by what was known as MAD, mutual assured destruction. Similar constraints have no doubt prevented their use in the confrontation between India and Pakistan.”
The question now is this: are terrorists deterred by their own potential destruction, when they already act as suicide bombers? Stated clearer, once one is released from the belief in life, as stated in our Declaration of Independence, how may he be effectively confronted and countered?
What binds the terrorists we face today together is the religion of the intentional, indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians. No true religion can underwrite this thinking.
What binds us, the Western democracies, together, first and foremost, is the belief that all men have a right to life. As so eloquently stated in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, all mankind are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
From the terrorist perspective, terror-war is the waging of war against democracies and life. It is meant to cause death, suffering and anguish among masses of civilian populations in pursuit of political gain.
Given the chasm in values between mass killers and people firmly adhering to the right to life (and a lot of other rights), it seems the Patriot Act, NSA eavesdropping and restrictions on liquids aboard aircraft are minor indeed.
This conundrum of belief between terrorism and America, in fact, the west, must consequently alter the way we view and wage this war on terror in the future.
Before Iran has a nuclear weapon, we might rethink our values and moral restrictions. Or ask ourselves, how many lives would we be ready to lose?
Did Israel Go Too Far in Lebanon?
NO.
Israelis believed they were (are) fighting a just war
Just War
http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/jus_ad_bellum/
and despite the fundamental justness of this war (a war of survival), Israel has fought a limited war, seeking to limit its combat to targets of military significance.
Fighting Well in Limited War
http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/jus_in_bello/
In these respects, Israel deserves every bit of understanding and support we fellow strugglers in the WOT can give them.
Not enough to dampen the victory celebration, complete with fireworks, in southern Lebanon last night. The Hezbos were obviously pleased with the way Israel "fought."
If the bombings of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Dresden did not go too far (it didn't) to put an end to and provide retribution for wars started by the enemy, then the defensive attacks against the Hezbollocks in Lebanon are justified.
They area all not "one in the same", 20% of Lebanon's population is Catholic.
The Lebanese culture is not closed such as Syria, Iran or Saudi Arabia. They were and are a model of developing democracy in the Middle East. It's not a good moment for the world to give the whacko extremist an opportunity to show the younger portion of the general population the Hizzies are also a social program.
Israel lost the war because they were not willing to win it. Losers do not write history ...
Then, all Islamic terrorists are guilty, guilty, guilty.
btw - Israel made it a point to pound the Christian areas of Beirut.
Christians are supporting the murders by Islamic militants?????
Source to back up your comment?
The muslims use our humanity as a weapon against us!!
anybody here think Pres. Truman didn't help US interests @ Hiroshima? Where's our next Truman?
Agreed John!
Diallo ... not intended to (obvisouly) show disbelief in your assertion.
I'll ask again ... if you reference the BBC and accuse Christian groups of supporting the Islamic Terrorists, you're gonna need to post a link as back-up.
3rd Request: LINK PLEASE
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.