War in the Middle East

Not all that surprising when you come right down to it. Palestine is always on the edge of open warfare. The immediate cause this time around was the kidnapping (capture?) of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah forces. In response the Israeli Air Force has been pounding targets in Gaza and Lebanon and now I see that Israeli ground troops have sortied into Lebanon as well.

Incredible as it may sound I actually agree with Bush the Unhinged on this one. The Israeli’s do have a right to defend themselves. As to whether or not the response is appropriate, that’s another question.

I don’t question the proportion of the response. In Heinlein’s Starship Troopers Ron Rico is in Officer Candidate School and his Political Ethics instructor raises the question of prisoners of war not being returned. The class agrees that 1,000 prisoners not being returned is a casus belli, but the discussion bogs down when they try to identify a lower bound Is it 100, 10, 1? Rico finally gets frustrated with the instructor’s attitude and gives him the Cap Trooper’s answer. It doesn’t matter whether it’s 1,000 or 1, you fight. To Rico’s surprise, the instructor agrees. The number is irrelevant, it’s the principal that matters and the principal states that you protect your own. Regardless of the consequences, you never leave a man behind, and an attack upon one is an attack upon all.

What is unclear is whether or not the target of the response is appropriate. Does Lebanon really have any control over what Hezbollah does?

In the meantime Bush and company at the G8 summit got trapped by an open mike that they were unaware of including Bush’s use of an expletive to describe Hezbollah’s actions. Tsk, tsk, and here I thought the Unhinged was a nice Christian lad.

I’m not a pacifist. I prefer peace to war and I consider conflict a last resort but I’m smart enough to know that sometimes peace can only be found on the other side of war. Is Fundamentalist Islam a force that can be negotiated with and a philosophy that the west can live peacefully with? From what I know of our own Christian Fundamentalists I have to say I doubt it. Tolerance for other ideas is a foreign concept to these people. If they have any power whatsoever they will cheerfully crush anyone that disagrees with them or who doesn’t follow their rules. You can’t negotiate with a fanatic.

What you can do is encourage the more moderate elements of these movements. These people you can negotiate with because they don’t really adhere to the same medieval philosophy. As soon as I discover any moderates in the Islamic Fundamentalist movement, I’ll let you know.