A Disproportionate Myth
Violence never solved anything.
At least that’s how the saying goes. It’s an expression that has been used by pacifists for years. “Make Love Not War” they cry. But have you ever noticed that the ones chanting these tired slogans are usually hundreds or thousands of miles away from the actual conflict?
Random acts of violence usually solve nothing, but random acts of violence are rarely if ever meant to solve anything. Strategically planned and executed violence often does bring about a solution. Anybody who says otherwise hasn’t paid attention very well in history class.
The current headlines scream that the ongoing military action being undertaken by Israel against Hamas in the Gaza strip is overkill (no pun intended). “Israel’s Attack Disproportionate” they say and use pictures of poor civilians and children killed or wounded in the airstrikes as proof of their claim.
To be sure, the sight of bleeding and dead children with their parents weeping at their side is horrific. But war is horrific business. There are no clean wars. By its very nature the purpose of a trained military is to kill people and break things and the purpose of military action is to kill enough of the enemy and break enough of their equipment to vanquish their will if not their physical ability to fight. It is not the military’s job to teach anybody a lesson, although the lesson is usually learned by the time the military is done.
The U.S. dropping nuclear bombs on Japan has long been viewed as disproportionate in its targeting of civilians but to anybody paying attention it ended the war with Japan in a matter of days. The ghastly pictures of human devastation and the years of radioactive health issues have prevented further use of these weapons of mass destruction. But the reality is that it was an extreme act of violence that did indeed bring resolution.
I am neither Jewish, nor do I feel any particular special support for Israel. But I am a supporter of any free democratic country that finds its very existence threatened by Islamic sects whose sole purpose in life is to kill its citizens. Israel has been warning these Islamic fascists for months that if they did not stop the daily mortar attacks on Israeli towns and citizens it would retaliate. Their warnings were ignored. They are not being ignored now.
As the death toll climbs toward 500 the news media is quick to report the number of civilian deaths. The deaths of the innocent are always tragic and even though civilian deaths account for only about 20% of the total it is no less heartbreaking. The reason the civilian deaths are even that high is that these Islamic warmongers set up their mortar launchers in civilian neighborhoods and around schools. The “civilian” adults are guilty of complicity with the uniformed Hamas fighters. There is no military and non-military zone. It’s all military zone.
As the major concern in the news media and with other Muslim countries seems to be a disproportionate response by Israel, let me ask the million dollar question: What exactly is an appropriate response to daily mortar attacks on Israeli civilians? What is an appropriate response to suicide bombers trained and equipped by Hamas to blow up civilian buses and marketplace shoppers? What is an appropriate response to a terrorist organization that has repeatedly stated their sole mission in life is to destroy Israel?
This extreme level of Muslim terror is not limited to Gaza or the Palestinian held territories. It exists and is growing in Egypt, Sudan, Iran, Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, Somalia, Uganda and Jordan to name only a few. Muslim terror cells are expanding in just about every country on every continent. The news media continues to misidentify the threat by stating that actions like the one taken by Israel will embolden these terrorists. Make no mistake; they are already bold enough to attack the United States. And that is as bold as it gets. Ask Japan how that worked out for them.
And then ask them about violence solving nothing.
