Posted by
You can see it from here on Tuesday, July 18, 2006 1:46:33 PM
We Americans seem to have adopted the view that we are the only ones entitled to conduct just wars, that they must be kept short and sanitary.
We've never been attacked by rocket with warheads full of buckshot in order to tear apart human flesh. We've been attacked by people who would gladly murder every last American and we're fighting them. How can we credibly ask the Israelis to do different.
I'm a believer that "limited" wars are just a slow way to lose. In most wars, there's some person or party at the root who keeps it going. It might be to create an empire, to spread an ideology, or just to gain power. The war will not end until the source of the evil is eliminated.
Like a boil, there is a core to the abscess, and it can't begin to heal until that core is removed and the infection can drain. That should be our approach. Identify the source of the infection and eliminate it. If we had taken this approach in North Koreak, how many fewer people would have died? How about Saddam's victims in Iraq? How about our unwillingness to take the Vietnam war to the North during the Johnson era?
The Arabs are like the South in the Civil War. Until the horrors of war were brought home to their heartland, they thought of the war as a noble cause being fought for their rights as states and slave owners. Until that view is seen to be the route to great suffering, there can be no peace. Such is the case with those who still think they can eleminate the state of Israel. It is a fact of life, and the sooner the nations of the region come to terms with that, the happier they and everyone else will be.