Moral Equivocation

The Left continues to draw parallels between the actions of terrorists in Hezbollah and HAMAS and the actions of the nation of Israel. Between catch phrases such as "collective punishment" and "disproportionate response." As Rush Limbaugh observed during his program a few days ago, the ratio of US to Japanese military battle deaths in the Pacific Theatre of World War II was something in the neighborhood of 22:1 (Rush's figures were much more precise; I don't have the actual numbers here in front of me). That figure, however, does not even include civilian casualties. It doesn't include the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Would the Left classify a 22:1 ratio in battle deaths as a "disproportionate response?" Should we have gone easier on the Japanese? After all, they only killed about 2,400 soldiers and 70 civilians in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Should we have stopped after reciprocating with 2,400 combat and 70 civilian deaths on the Japanese side? Would that have made everything okay (would the Japanese have stopped after an even proportion was reached)? To even ask questions such as these is ludicrous, yet this is how the Left seems to think wars should be fought.


The idea that Israel should offer a response in proportion to the actions perpetrated upon them by Hezbollah is steeped in emotionalism, yet is painfully lacking in logic. After 9/11, we didn't hear these same people calling for restraint and for a "proportionate response." We didn't hear condemnation of the "collective punishment" of the Taliban and the Afghani people. Yet to the Left, who consider the very existence of the nation of Israel to be tantamount to a terrorist act, any response offered by Israel is inappropriate.

Personally, I happen to believe that this current crisis, more than anything else, shows why the Left cannot be trusted to run America: they lack perspective. The United States is fighting a War on Terror...or, more appropriately, a War on Islamic Radicalism. I've heard it time and time again from Leftists: "You can't fight Islamic radicalism...Islamic radicalism is an idea, and you can't fight an idea." This argument is ludicrous. We are fighting Islamic radicalism by *gasp* killing Islamic radicals!!! The Left, however, cannot seem to bring themselves to believe that all Islamic radicals are our enemies (despite the fact that they consider the United States to be "The Great Satan"). The truth is that the current Israel/Lebanon conflict is another front in the War on Terror.

Instead of condemning Hezbollah for fighting dirty in order to win the PR battle, the Left condemns Israel for "targetting" civilians. The truth is that Israel's first action in this conflict was to target infrastructure - airports and roads - in order to prevent Iran and Syria from re-supplying Hezbollah with weapons. After that, Israel began targetting Hezbollah's military targets...which Hezbollah just happened to have hidden in hospitals, mosques, schools, and homes...and then Hezbollah prevented civilians from leaving those areas, in order to purposly maximize civilian casualties when Israel struck those targets. Of course, while the media has been faithfully reporting the number of civilian casualties, they have been mysteriously silent on the number of Hezbollah terrorists who have been killed. And since Hezbollah fighters don't wear uniforms, there have been questions as to whether terrorist deaths have been heaped in with the numbers of innocents killed in order to inflate the numbers. Because according to the Left, Israel is the terrorist organizaion, and Hezbollah is just defending itself against their 'aggression'. Israel's bombing of a UN outpost? Kofi Annan called it a "deliberate act." I don't doubt that - Israel was deliberately targetting the Hezbollah militants that had been using the UN outpost to shield them from attack.

Despite all of the attacks and moral equivocation from the Left in this conflict, Israel has been doing exactly the right thing. As deplorable as civilian losses are, Israel is sending a message to Hezbollah: "It isn't going to work anymore. We aren't going to let you hide behind civilians, or even the United Nations any more. We will attack you where you hide, and we will kill you. We will not put up with your dirty tricks any more. We will do what it takes to stop you, and you will rue the day you messed with the soveriegn nation of Israel." Israel's actions are "Cowboy diplomacy" at its finest, and it is this attitude, rather than the appeasement urged on by Leftists worldwide, that will end the cycle of violence in the Middle East.

Kofi Annan says that he wants a cease-fire. Well, Israel will give it to him: sooner or later, Hezbollah will run out of rockets and terrorists to fire those rockets. And when Hezbollah has been brought to its knees and shot in the head, Israel will cease firing, because they will have run out of terrorists to fire at.