Someone walks up to you with a baseball bat. They say they want to kill you.
Your response is “no, I don’t want to get beaten to death with a baseball bat”.
Looks like you have a standoff. A controversy. A conundrum.
Someone else steps in and asks “How about we compromise? Will you settle for a traumatic brain injury?”
It’s the middle way, after all. The guy with the bat might even say “sure, I just wanna hit you, hard!“
You might respond “No – in fact, I don’t want anyone hurting me in any way. At all”
And the buttinski responds “Why won’t yiou compromise?”
Who’s right?
You?
The guy with the bat?
Or the person striving to find the middle ground between the two of you?
If your response is “I’m putting my foot down; nobody is hitting me with a bat for any reason at all“, and the other to ask “why do you hate the guy with the bat?“, does that change anybody’s mind?
Point being, sometimes the middle path, the compromise, is not the most moral path forward.
Typical MAGA extremist position.
“Israel exists and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” Hamas Charter, 2nd paragraph.
C’mon man! Can’t you compromise with that?
What if the buttinski, surprising everyone, pulls a pistol and says “I gave you that bat to play baseball, and you’re using it to assault that guy you don’t like. Give it back and you two can go at it. This isn’t my circus, and you two knuckleheads are not my monkeys…I’m taking my toys and going home.”
Point being, sometimes being involved in a fight you have no d0g in isn’t the smartest path forward.
Guy with bat tells buttinski “If you shoot me, I’m a martyr and I win”, and goes about hitting you with the bat.
I am, obviously, not a lawyer.
But I believe that the accepted rules of war allow a proportional response, and define a proportionate as a response that will eliminate the threat while causing the smallest number of civilian deaths.
So, if your enemy is halfway around the world, and is using rockets to bombard your cities, you can take out the rockets and launchers, but not napalm the suburbs surrounding them.
So how can Israel prevent another attack by Hamas from Gaza while minimizing (not eliminating) civilian casualties?
I’m open to ideas . . .
MMP, you lack a solution because your premise is faulty.
There are no rules of war. War is, by definition, the abandonment of ordinary rules of civilized conduct in favor of violence until one side is victorious.
Wikipedia discusses attempts to impose Law of War dating back to the Code of Hammurabi, almost all of which were concerned with treatment of conscripts who did not choose to go to war and protection of princes who started it. The attempts to codify rules of war failed because the weaker side decided the rules were too restrictive for victory so they abandoned the rules and fought ‘dirty.’ The scholarly term for that is ‘aysemmetrical warfare.’ The only effective response is overwhelming power wielded remorselessly.
Lesson for Israel here.
In Gaza, exactly who constitutes a civilian?
I read the Gaza body counts in the MSM and they say, “2,300 civilians killed”.
Does that include the guy wrapped in the green flag shouldering an RPG?
Supposedly the definition of compromise is making neither side happy. But all that goes out the window when one side is an obvious nut case whose only aim is to maim or kill you. In that case, I suggest shooting him first and without remorse. Even if you have to shoot the buttinski first.
It’s time to end the idea of proportionate response. All it does is prolong the conflict. Stop the threat.
moderation for Hammurabi?
“If you shoot me, I’m a martyr and I win”, and goes about hitting you with the bat.”
When you don’t give my toys back, you’ve made it my problem. I shoot you in the hand, take my bat, at which time my problem is solved so I leave and wish you good luck.
“It’s time to end the idea of proportionate response. All it does is prolong the conflict. Stop the threat.”
As long as you’re not conducting your disproportionate response with my shit, Idgaf.
But if I have a say in the matter, as long as we’re arming one side of this shitshow with our most advanced weapons to defend against an enemy whose arsenal consists of rifles, tunnels and Wylie coyote rockets, they’ll do as we tell them to do.
The Israeli body count now stands at 6000 Palestinians. Its overwhelmingly completely unarmed civilians, women and children.
Now, I know you bloodthirsty neocons won’t be satisfied until our Greatest Ally™️ has wiped the Palestinians off the face of the planet, but what you twits fail to recognize is, when that’s done, there will be millions of really pissed off muzzies ready to strike back…at us….or more specifically, at me and my family.
And for that, what exactly do we get in return? What have we received in return for the trillions we’ve already sent Israel?
Fuck that.
But, J Ewing, the nutcase isn’t aiming to kill you, or me…he don’t GAF about us.
Why would you or I get involved in a turf war we have absolutely no part of?
Do you own vacation property in Jerusalem or the West bank? Well then you have a problem. Still not anyone else’s problem…damn sure isn’t mine.
WTF why do we have troops in Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE?
The Pentagon has requested that Israel hold off until they can deploy nearly a dozen air-defense systems to the region, the Wall Street Journal first reported. The missile deployments, which are expected to be completed in the coming days, are intended to shield U.S. troops serving in Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates from enemy rockets and missiles.</i?
Remember this gem?
As CPAC dismisses claims that its stage resembled a Nazi insignia, Hyatt calls hate symbols ‘abhorrent’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/01/cpac-stage-nazi-symbol-hyatt/
Turns out there was more antisemitism in the glee club of DC’s own Georgetown University than in all of CPAC.
These people are not what you would call “smart.”
That’s hilarious, MMP.
We need to deploy antimissile batteries to protect our trans troops stationed where they don’t belong, because our Greatest Ally™️ is fixing to commit genocide.
Does anyone doubt for a minute that Israel would love nothing better then to have a massive casualty incident among Weimericans?
What a shit show.
Manhunt Under Way After Deadly Maine Shootings; ‘He Started Believing He Could Hear People’ ~ WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/manhunt-under-way-after-deadly-mass-shootings-in-maine-5410ec55
Hard to believe there were no CCW holders around. Maine has permitless carry.
Nice to see that the same guy who accepts Kremlin press releases uncritically does the same with those from Hamas. My take regarding the civilian deaths is that when Hamas puts their rocket launchers in elementary schools, neighborhoods, and the like, then the deaths of civilians when those rocket launchers are hit are on them, not Israel.
How to stop the terrorism? Start retaliating against the country from whence the funding is coming, Iran. It is akin to when Bismarck was warned that the French had a much bigger garrison near German Cameroon than did the Germans, and he responded to the effect of “If France wants war, they will have it….on the Rhine.” Lots of people are dying on both sides because we aren’t dealing with terror at its source, and when Iran loses their navy and a few airfields, the IDF will be allowed to peacefully go door to door in Gaza.
Just what we need, another war with no thought about to how to end it.
“the IDF will be allowed to peacefully go door to door in Gaza.”
*Peacefully go door to door*
Bahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaa!
Bikebubble has gone full on SS!!
“We know you’re hiding Palestinians here…where are they?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QfSjs_6MZOQ&pp=ygUoTmF6aSBzZWFyeGggb2YgaG91c2UgaW5nbG9yaW91cyBiYXN0YXJkcw%3D%3D
Heil Bibi!! 🙋
Emery, nice threadjack. But since you mention it:
Hard to believe there were no police officers around.
FIFY
Kremlin Tom, yes, I would argue that when Iranian support stops, so does Hamas. Let’s give it a try.
Fuck yeah, Mr. Bubble. For war with Iran, there’s no time like the present!
Get yourself down to the cannon fodder recruit depot zippy quick…chop chop
If only there were actually some successful 21st century American war we could use as an example.
Whatever war the US gets in will be run by Biden, Blinken, Sullivan, Milley and Austin.
Not exactly confidence-inspiring.
Sullivan had to pull an article he had written for Foreign Policy that was supposed to hit the newstands this week. In it he bragged about how peaceful Israeli-Gaza relations were.
A serious administration would have fired his ass instead of trying to hide Sullivan’s incompetence.
But Obama likes Sullivan so that won’t happen (yes, Obama).
Obmama is running the show, MMP 10/10
The military is completely infested with his creatures, and has been rendered virtually combat ineffective. Weimerica is in for an ass whipping any time now.
I’ve actually heard that criticism from the neocons at Commentary, Blade. That maybe the US armed forces aren’t quite up to D-Day standards. Maybe the Israelis, too.
“Gods of the Copy Book Headings” and all that. Once you’ve decided that the purpose of your military is not to defeat the enemy, you will be defeated, your land taken, your women raped, your infant children will have their brains dashed out against the walls of your own citadel, etc.
The US has a little time left to correct course, but not much.
One of the signs of real distress is the number of incidents, in the last few years, where the navy has crashed ships and submarines due to incompetence by senior officers.
One of the things that differentiates the navy from the army and air force is that the capital required to produce a warship or submarine is huge. A naval commander is not just responsible for the lives of his crew, but, often, a multi-billion dollar ship or boat that will take years to replace. And they are crashing them.
It’s not just the military, MMP. Invest a minute to look at how many near collisions have happened at airports past couple years. Diversity is evident everywhere
The big thing being missed here is that for the last ten years, Palestinians in Gaza have “enjoyed” the “two-state solution” that everybody things brings peace to the region. Israel pulled completely out, the Palestinians held an election and chose Hamas to run the government. As a result they have no water, no food, no fuel or electricity, little medical care, poor education, no industry that would sustain a peaceful state, except for what little Israel supplies or allows to flow through from foreign aid which is promptly stolen to attack Israel. What they have is a government that tears out water and sanitation pipes to build crude rockets. What they have is a charter which demands genocide and extinction of the Jews. What they have is a “state” whose sole purpose is something below barbarity, deserving only of its own destruction, like one would a rabid cur. One feels for the “innocent” Palestinians literally trapped as human shields, but it is hard to distinguish them from those morally complicit in the evil done in their names. That ANYBODY in the civilized world would protest on their behalf marks them as equally morally (and probably mentally) deficient.
“The big thing being missed here is that for the last ten years, Palestinians in Gaza have “enjoyed” the “two-state solution””
Crazy Horse refused the American federal governments two state solution too, and fought them with everything he had…they’re carving his unrepentant, rebellious image into a mountain today, while Weimerica is melting down statues of White rebels of federal tyranny.
That said, and speaking for myself, I’d happily accept a two state solution between me, my people and the degenerate Weimerican population.
So, do you have your one-way ticket to Gaza yet? Gaza is a “free state” apart from the /America/ you do not want to be a part of. Don’t let the doorknob….