The Civilized Are Losing

It is possible that the good guys are now so civilized that it is impossible for them to adequately defend themselves against bad guys who don’t recognize any bounds of morality.

On the Lebanon\Israeli border Hezbollah deliberately fire rockets from civilian areas knowing that Israel will respond by attempting to knock out the launcher. The calculation is that while the individual rockets launched will probably have very little impact on Israeli life and limb, the return strike by the IDF will deliver a public relations bonanza when the innocents placed in harms way by Hezbollah are killed and paraded before the video cameras.

The responsibility for events at Qana, where over 60 civilians were killed by an Israeli guided missile, should be laid at the feet of Hezbollah where it belongs. They are using civilians as shields to fire from behind and they should be condemned for it. But Israel is a sovereign state that has a right and an obligation to take out the launchers that threaten their villages and cities. No matter the location.

We in the West and in Israel are civilized and progressive and want nothing to do with the bloodshed of innocents. Unfortunately we are faced with an enemy that knows that about us and is more than willing to draw fire toward their own women and children to shake us up and destroy our morale. It is depressing enough to recognize this reality about the foe, but my mood is made worse by the creeping realization that the enemy may have come up with a winning strategy.

Nearly all of the world’s condemnation has been aimed at Israel during this latest conflict, notwithstanding the fact that Hezbollah isn’t even a state. A crackpot militia has succeeded in getting a platform on the world stage, and if a ceasefire is brokered soon, will be able to claim a victory by standing strong against the vaunted IDF.

Meanwhile a ragtag insurgency in Iraq is holding the best funded and trained army in all of history at bay. In Baghdad we walk on eggshells while the enemy targets innocents.

In Lebanon the Israeli Defense Forces spend no end of futile time trying to eliminate civilian targets and are told they are overreacting against a group that only launches toward Israeli citizens with its own rockets. All this takes place as the world fiddles away while Iran persistently enriches uranium with an eye on the next decade.

If Harry Truman were around he’d wipe out every building in every town that housed the enemy and its firepower. That was back when we not only knew how to start, but also had some idea how to END a war.

It is surrender, not ceasefire that sews the seeds of peace. But the enemy may be right that the good guys don’t have what it takes to force terms of surrender any longer.