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Answering My Readers

Supporting Israel and disproportionate responses

One of my readers, Preston, asked me (in this post) to explain my support of the Dan Halutz quote featured at the top of my sidebar:

So, here you go:

____________________________________________

  • I believe that a country has a right to defend itself and its citizens — not only from attacks, but to prevent attacks.
  • I believe that — when responding to threats or attacks against it — a country should respond, not proportionately, but by an order of magnitude greater than the initial threat/attack.
  • I believe that the retaliation should be so severe as to punish the enemy while minimizing their ability for future attacks, but also to serve as a deterrent to future attackers.
  • I believe that Lebanon is complicit in the actions of Hezbillah. Just because Lebanon denounces those actions now, doesn’t mean that they didn’t facilitate Hezbollah’s initial ability to launch attacks from within her borders.

Lebanon is not without fault or blame for hosting and providing safe harbor for the Hezbollah terrorist organization. At the very least, Lebanon was a willing pawn for Hezbollah.

I support Israel’s attempt to turn back the clocks by 20 years in Lebanon to show other nations the high cost of hosting and sponsoring terrorists groups. If you provide a safe harbor for terrorists, then you will and should be bombed back to the stone ages.

Posted by Robbie Cooper on Wednesday, July 26th, 2006 | Trackback |

9 Responses to “Answering My Readers”

1. I agree with that.
2. Proportionality does not refer to responding decisively. The critique on the proportionality of the response refers to the fact that so many civilians are being killed by Israeli actions than are threatened.
3. Agreed
4. Debatable. I’m glad you’ll never be my oncologist. It is inarguable that the body-politic of Lebanon had a cancer. Well, Israel’s treatment is in danger of killing the patient.

Less metaphorically: there were many Lebanonese who would have cheered Hezbollah’s reduction of influence in Lebanon. I suspect those people are more concerned with Israel bombing their homes at this point.

The question for me isn’t even ethics as much as strategy. Israel seems to be persuing an ineffective and unsustainable strategy (unless they intend to occupy Lebanon for another 18 years…)

Left by Preston on July 26th, 2006 at 3:02 pm

The critique on the proportionality of the response refers to the fact that so many civilians are being killed by Israeli actions than are threatened.

When you are engaging an enemy, it is not possible to minimize ‘civilian’ casualties when the enemy is entrenched in civilian residences, using them for staging attacks, storing munitions, etc.

The main problem is the ‘enemy’ we face today does not value human life. They KNOW that WE do value human life. It’s part of their strategy. They cry crocodile tears over their losses, at the same time rejoicing in the controversy it causes in the civilized world.

Is Hezbollah aiming at military targets with their rockets? No - they don’t care where they land, just that they inflict damage and chaos. Do suicide bombers target military facilities and personnel? No - they choose restaurants, markets, busses…. they want the most bang for their buck.

We have to stop thinking like civilized people until we are given a civilized enemy to fight. In the meantime, my heart aches for the truly innocent victims on both sides. But the blame lies on the shoulders of those that choose to put their civilians in harms’ way.

Left by Terr on July 26th, 2006 at 3:29 pm

We have to stop thinking like civilized people until we are given a civilized enemy to fight.

I agree that we are fighting an enemy that doesn’t value innocent life. That said, Israeli missiles have inflicted many more civilian deaths than Hezbollah.

But your desire to ’stop thinking like civilized people’ seems unlikely to win this war. I want to attack terrorists mercilessly but I want people in the middle such as the Lebanese to see which side values their lives. It is in that way that they will stop cowering and evict the terrorists in their midst.

Left by Preston on July 26th, 2006 at 3:41 pm

I want to attack terrorists mercilessly but I want people in the middle such as the Lebanese to see which side values their lives.

And the Israelis would love to see people start to ‘value their lives’ as well. Hasn’t been much valueing of Israeli lives in the past 20 years, has there? No, the world community embraces and enables the Palestinian cause, and condemns every effort that Israel makes to defend itself.

Neither side is 100% right or wrong, but seems to me that 99% of the world does not value Israeli lives at all.

Left by Terr on July 26th, 2006 at 5:06 pm

Well said, Terr!

Left by kw on July 26th, 2006 at 5:06 pm

Hezbollah wants Prisoner Released

Who is Samir Kuntar? Well, to Hezbollah and others in their circle, he is a hero. But to those who “value” human lives, he’s a murdering dog.

The World Should Know what he did to my Family

As police began to arrive, the terrorists took Danny and Einat down to the beach. There, according to eyewitnesses, one of them shot Danny in front of Einat so that his death would be the last sight she would ever see. Then he smashed my little girl’s skull in against a rock with his rifle butt. That terrorist was Samir Kuntar.

So this is why Hezbollah brings war to Lebanon? For this scum? Tell me, was the murder of a four-year-old a proportionate response to this guys problems? Why is Israel held to higher standards and terrorists aren’t subject to the same harsh scrutiny? I understand restistance. If they would go after soldiers, military installations, even government buildings, it would be one thing. But they just want to kill Jews. Doesn’t matter if they are 4 years old or 40 - as long as they kill as many as they can. In the most cowardly way possible. I am sorry for the Lebanese people, the innocent ones. I truly am. But how long can you continue to appease these monsters? Every single terrorist act in Israel kills people, most of them innocent, many of them children. Where is the indignation for that? You want the Lebanese to see ‘which side values lives’, but how about a little indignation from ALL people for ALL innocent victims. Including the Israeli victims.

Left by Terr on July 26th, 2006 at 6:11 pm

Why is Israel held to higher standards and terrorists aren’t subject to the same harsh scrutiny?

When you label someone as a terrorist there is an understanding that they are not holding themselves to high standards in the treatment of civilians.

Personally, I’m comfortable with the restrictions that come with not behaving like terrorists. It is who we are- I thought.

Left by Preston on July 26th, 2006 at 10:46 pm

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Left by austinsnews.net | Calibrating for hype on July 27th, 2006 at 1:24 am

A couple of weeks ago, I was standing in the shadow of the Sears Tower in the great city of Chicago. As I looked at it, the first thought in my mind was terrorism. In my half century of years on this earth, I’ve never taken a vacation in this country and pondered the possibility of being a victim of a terrorist attack, but all that changed a few years ago. I cannot imagine living in Israel or Baghdad, never knowing if my trip to the market will be the last trip I ever take because there are thousands of people out there whose only purpose in life is to unmercifully kill. It must be like living in a city with all the serial killers in the prisons let loose at once.

Imagine what it would be like if there were a thousand Hillside Stranglers on the loose in LA. How would you dare let your children walk to school? How would you dare go anywhere at night? We Americans would be so distraught that we’d storm the government agencies demanding protection, demanding the killers be caught at any expense, including nearly all our rights to privacy. We’d arm ourselves to the teeth. We’d do just about anything to protect ourselves and our way of life.

Israel is doing the only thing it can do, and that is hunt out and destroy the terrorist serial killers who threaten their very existence. They cannot rely on treaties or the worthless United Nations to help them. They know innocent civilians will be killed in the process, including their own people, but they believe they have no other choice.

I only hope we in the America have the same resolve.

Left by dianne on July 27th, 2006 at 9:50 am

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