In A Perfect World
By Mitch Berg
There’s a conceit among the lace-underwear crowd that war is the same as it was in the MIddle Ages in Europe – “armies” squaring off in a field for some perfunctory jousting and stabbing leading to the exchange of land or a change in royal wedding plans. The modern equivalent would be a sort of legal negotiation punctuated with cruise missiles and video of screaming children.
“Proportionality”, it’s called; hitting back as you were hit, but no harder.
Among those calling for “proportionality” in the Gaza War [1], the eternally useless Fareed Zakaria:
Let’s look at “proportionality”
Had the US and Western Allies observed Zakaria’s Marquis of Queensberry notion of war [2], World War 2 would have looked a little different.
The US, UK and the Netherlands would have had to stop after sinking the Japanese fleet, and liberating the Philippines, Singapore, the East Indies, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Air strikes would have been limited to single engine aircraft, and the US would have been limited to six aircraft carriers. Once the Philippines were returned, that’s it.
Germany? Once France, the Low Countries, Denmark and Norway were liberated, we’d have had to stop at the Rhine River. The Soviets, likewise [3], would have been obliged to stop at the Oder River, the frontier between pre-war Germany and Poland. Hitler would have been left to figure out how to try again.
In other words, we – like Israel – would still be at war, 3/4 of a century later.
It is a national disgrace that Zakaria has a TV show.
[1] That is to say, a proportional response from Israel. Not from Hamas or Hez’b Allah.
[2] on the part of westerners, not those who want us dead or subjugated
[3] Although people like our modern Left always give Stalin a pass on the rules.
January 16th, 2024 at 2:42 pm
It’s worth noting that the Marquess of Queensbury rules do not prohibit being a far better boxer than your opponent. And if we limit wars to “fair fights”, we’re simply signing on for wars to be longer, deadlier, and more brutal than they otherwise would be. Wars end, after all, when one side sees that everything they care for is going to be taken or destroyed by an enemy that is far superior.
Really, Zakaria’s rant is a sign that getting multiple Ivy League degrees does not indicate any hope of coherent thought, and he’s really showing contempt for the thousands of Israelis who were raped, mutilated, and murdered by Hamas animals. Leaving Hamas militants alive and outside of prison shows contempt for the innocent victims, and if Zakaria really cares about Gazans, he owes it to them to say “surrender and stop putting ammunition dumps and bases in civilian buildings.”
January 16th, 2024 at 3:07 pm
A friend of mine, who happens to be from Israel and a former Captain in the IDF, advised me that his younger brother, who is a Colonel in the IDF intelligence service, shared some stuff that made me want to sign up with them. Everyone knows, even if they won’t admit or acknowledge it, that Hamas is made up of low lifes and cowards, using civilians as shields. Along this line, Hamas has many of their minions dress in civilian clothes, then launch attacks. If these scum bags get killed, Hamas uses pictures of their dead brothers to claim the IDF is killing civilians.
January 16th, 2024 at 6:11 pm
Hell, the boys of the 4th Minnesota Volunteers who marched with Sherman to the Sea would have been incorrect in that interpretation.
The purpose of war is that when political solutions have failed, the solution is implemented through the use of force. That is what he misses. Clausewitz understood it, Jomini did, as did Corbett and Mahan. Our intellectual class refuses to do so.
January 17th, 2024 at 6:39 am
I’m not much of a believer in international law – especially when it comes to war.
One commenter, above, said, “The purpose of war is when political solutions have failed.” This is entirely correct. The question becomes whether we then fall back to “international law” that itself was a political solution to limit war. I say “no” to that.
War is Hell. It’s supposed to be Hell. The threat of Hell is the last off-ramp on the road to war.
As has happened dozens of times in the last 3,000 years, a segment of the Arab world has challenged the Hebrews’ existence. It should be a surprise to no one that Israel has responded in an Old Testament manner. Rules be damned.
January 17th, 2024 at 11:41 am
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January 17th, 2024 at 8:58 pm
People like that just don’t understand what a “proportional response” means in this context…or they pretend not to. Probably the latter.
Proportional response doesn’t mean that the response must inflict equal damage to the attacker and no more.
A proportional response means the force necessary to stop the attack. It’s no difference than self-defense on the personal level. If someone attacks me, I am lawfully entitled to use as much force as necessary…up to and including killing them…to end the attack and stop the threat. If they stab me with a sword, I’m not limited to only defending myself with a sword in response. Stabbing is lethal force and application of lethal force in response is proportional, regardless of the form the lethal force response takes.
The fact that Hamas is still shooting rockets at Israel from Gaza and there are still fighters popping off rounds at the IDF indicates clearly that the threat has not been eliminated; therefore, it is entirely “proportional”, as well as moral and legal for Israel to continue applying deadly force until the threat is stopped.
In the immortal words of Captain Malcolm Reynolds: “If someone ever tries to kill you, you try to kill ’em right back.”
January 18th, 2024 at 4:45 pm
One other thought that comes to mind regarding the “lace underwear” crowd is that war in the Middle Ages, and war in the Renaissance era, was indeed horrific. If you look at the “deaths in battle”, you might miss it, but the really nasty thing was that injuries would kill soldiers and civilians alike over a long period of infection and more. The 30 Years’ War killed something like 25% of the population of Germany (German mothers still tell their kids to be good or the Swedes will come), for example. In the Middle Ages, that “civilized” war tended to cause male mortality (war, accidents) to balance out with female (childbirth) at a couple of percent annually. Then you had sieges followed by gang rape, etc..
So when someone points to “the past” as a way of making war more just, I’ve got to wonder exactly what they’re smoking.