Israel launches attacks into Gaza; several hundred killed

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 205 dead

"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."

-- Gen. George S. Patton

 

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 205 dead

Not to be crass, and maybe this isn't the place for it, so apologies to anyone this song offends. But my reaction to these endless and senseless deaths is almost always the same:

When's it going to end?

 

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 225 dead

That was my thought -- that somehow the Israelis are at fault for having better aim?

 

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 225 dead

I wouldn't put it like that, but Israel does have a considerable advantage in military power, thus, I think, they do have a larger share of the responsibility when things like this -- always -- end up happening.

By all accounts they did major damage to Hamas with this strike, and that's good. But civilians died, too, and they knew that was going to happen.

Israel's policy has to be to get Hamas out of power and replace them with someone they can deal with, to work toward a two-state solution.

I don't see how this strike works toward that goal. Even if you wipe Hamas out operationally for a while, you haven't made any progress toward getting them out of power.

Continuing to prove what we all already know -- that Israel is far superior militarily to Hamas and Fatah -- does not help achieve Israel's ultimate goals, so, no, I don't think this is the way war is supposed to be waged.

Unless your goal is preserving the status quo.

 

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 225 dead

Well put, Zeke. Israel has every right to defend itself, but I don't think it's doing itself any favors by doing this.

 

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 225 dead

When Hamas attacks, do they target civilians? try to minimize collateral (non military damage)? When was the last time a Muslim based armed military attack attempted to minimize civilian casualties. Make it easy for you, Start with the '72 Olympics.

 

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 225 dead

I'm conflicted as to whether Israel is right or wrong here, but apart from that, the fact that one side does it doesn't make it OK for the other side to do it. If Israel (or, say, the U.S.) wants to claim the moral high ground, it must at least occasionally occupy it.

 

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 225 dead

The same scenario I proffered earlier: Let's say you have 3 kids in your backyard playing, and the neighbor keeps throwing handfuls of firecrackers or the like over the fence into your backyard.

As a father in this scenario, I'm pretty sure you're going to your neighbors house ready to beat the living fuck out of someone.

 

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 225 dead

Yes, and then what?

 

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 225 dead

If this was foreignpolicyexperts.com, I would be scared to death.

 

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 225 dead

And therein lies the question of civility.

What if the firecrackers explode on your 3-year-old son or daughter?

Then what, indeed.

 

Re: Israel launches attacks into Gaza; at least 225 dead

zeke --
Hamas -- thanks to us -- is the elected government of Gaza, which is nothing more than a larger than usual prison camp with 1.5 million people living in an area twice the size of DC. That kind of concentrated firepower is all about terrorizing the inhabitants. Hell, they didn't even attack the Hamas military. They attacked the cops and the political structure and then blamed the people they bombed for failure to control the rocket attacks.