The argument (according to Juan Williams and Mark Shields) is that Israel was the aggressor because far, far more Palestinians died then Jews. Memo to historically illiterate dunderheads – far, far more Japanese and Germans died then Americans in World War II, were we the aggressors then?
by Victor Davis Hanson
Classical explanations of conventional wars run something like this: An aggressor state seeks political advantage through military force. It has a hunch that the threatened target will likely either make concessions to avoid losing a war, or, if war breaks out, the resulting political gains will be worth the military costs to achieve victory.
Wars then are prevented only by a balance of power and military deterrence: Aggressors have to be warned that it would be stupid to start a war they will likely lose. If there are miscalculations or if emotions run high and logic is ignored, then the resulting conflicts only end when one side loses and has no choice but to accept the imposed terms of the winner.
That being said, the modern therapeutic West has either forgotten such rules or ignored them. In today’s globally televised wars, a novel doctrine of proportionality reigns. It is sort of like T-ball, in which scoring and winning don’t matter. Instead both the stronger and weaker sides end up the same. Little attention is paid to who started the conflict, how it was conducted, or how it should be ended.
In terms of the Middle East, contemporary T-ball war works out like this: A far weaker Gaza sends a shower of missiles into Israel, hiding its launchers among civilians to ensure collateral damage and favorable propaganda during Israeli retaliation.
Israel, with its technological savvy, knocks down most of the incoming rockets, but then responds by killing far more Palestinians in Gaza than it lost inside Israel. That is considered unsportsmanlike play. In a fair T-ball fight, Israel should have stopped the war when the losses were equal and not tried to run up the score.
Apparently Israel was supposed to shut down its Iron Dome anti-missile system so that the Hamas missiles could kill enough Israelis to match those killed in Gaza. Then it should have accepted a cease-fire to the no-win/no-lose game, until Hamas chose to play the next “proportional” inning of this perpetual ball game.
However, just as one side in T-ball can be more skilled than the other, and parents secretly keep score in supposedly scoreless games, so too do the age-old rules of war not change just because we think they must.
Hamas went to war against Israel by shooting hundreds of rockets into the Jewish state. It thought such aggression made sense. The attack was timed just after the U.S. election. Hamas guessed that the Obama administration would be largely neutral without reelection worries over pro-Israel voters in swing states.
Hamas also hoped that it would have more success against Israel than during its last war in 2008. After all, it had plenty of new, longer-range Iranian rockets that could reach most cities in Israel.
[.........]
More important, Hamas figured it had two new friends nearby in Recep Erdogan’s Islamist government in Turkey and the newly ascendant Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt under Mohamed Morsi.
By going to war, Hamas reminded the world that American allies such as Turkey and Egypt are now firmly in the new Iranian-backed Islamist and anti-Israel orbit. Like Hamas, both regimes came to power through elections, and then almost immediately tried to silence the opposition to ensure their permanent authoritarian rule. In Morsi’s case, the new Gaza war gave him cover for almost immediately trying to suspend the constitution.
[........]
For now, all that may have worked.
But just as the fantasies of T-ball give way when kids grow up and start keeping score in the real world of baseball, so too will the T-ball war in the Middle East come to an end. To avoid unending rocket barrages and serial on-and-off wars, Israel will have to convince Hamas and its allies that, collectively, they all have a lot to lose by starting more T-ball wars — ones that in the future no longer will end with a no-score truce.
Read the rest – T-ball war in the Middle East
Tags: Victor Davis Hanson
Uh…according to Patton winning a war means one side kills more of them than those who are killed on the other side. Or something like that.
If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score. -- Lombardi
Oh yeah.
Second
“war is cruelty and you cannot refine it”
General William Tecumseh Sherman
Folks don’t understand what war is anymore. So it comes as no great surprise that most have the wrong impression of what just happened in Gaza.
Da_Beerfreak wrote:
The latest battle in an ongoing war is summed up by the OSM and the general Left with, hey you killed more of us that we killed of you. That’s NOT fair.
Welcome to the machine.
You gotta get past the ads.
One more attack, and the “terror ticker” on the right ——-->
will hit 20,000.
@ Da_Beerfreak:
Most of the wars we’ve been involved in during at least my lifetime the average American didn’t even understand the point of.
Stardate 3192 A Taste of Armageddon
lobo91 wrote:
Most of the political class in DC Town are clueless too. They seam to think it’s some sort of sporting event that can be played by a set of rules.
Xeon wrote:
Give it a few minutes.
darkwords wrote:
Interesting thought… So many to choose from…
@ song_and_dance_man:
I cannot stand Pink Floyd particularly Roger Waters.
Da_Beerfreak wrote:
I think I’d have to go with getting rid of Mohammed before he started his crazy cult.
This is not going to end well.
Chinese police plan to board vessels in disputed seas
@ Da_Beerfreak:
It would be amusing to see them try to board one of our carriers.
Not that Obama would send one there, of course.
@ 13 lobo91: That is probably the best one.
Da_Beerfreak wrote:
well there is one rule… a dead enemy can’t attack you.
@ Speranza:
O’Reilly talking about Gangnam style again. It’s the 3rd day in a row.
@ Da_Beerfreak
I am not sure how good the Filipino military is.
Rodan wrote:
He is such an unbelievable bore.
@ 18 Rodan: I don’t even know what it is other than it is some Asian guy dancing on TV all the time. I was thinking it was like that Asian guy on American Idol who was made fun of. Sort of a soft sort of racism.
@ Da_Beerfreak:
They are doing something we used to do. They actually have declared a sphere influence. There was a time we used to look after our interest. Now we look after global interest.
lobo91 wrote:
it would be funnier to see them board a submarine
darkwords wrote:
Has O’Reilly (I know he had Lincoln Chafee on tonight) done any more “War on Christmas” bullshit?
@ darkwords:
It’s a Korean Electro-Rap song. Just a club record. It’s the 2010′s version of Rock Me Amadeus.
@ Speranza:
I put on the Saints-Falcons game.
Speranza wrote:
Aren’t they, in effect, Code Pink Floyd at this point?
@ brookly red:
Surfacing sort of defeats the purpose, though.
@ 25 Rodan: yah someone could probably make a fortune finding the ancestral musical parents of modern rap songs.
Speranza wrote:
Don’t have to be “good” to accidently start a shooting war, just unlucky…
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
Correctamundo.
Rodan wrote:
Ugh. Another song I’d prefer to forget
@ 24 Speranza: I think Oreilly is about money now and his personal agenda. I don’t see him seriously going to bat for little people.
lobo91 wrote:
surfacing?
Since we’re talking war, a reminder from this afternoon:
The entire cost of both the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan, from 2001 until now, is only about 1.3 trillion—in other words, equivalent to just one year’s deficit in any of the years Obama has been President.
darkwords wrote:
It would be hard enough finding the parents of most rap performers…
//
@ brookly red:
I doubt that they can hold their breath long enough to do it otherwise.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
well blowing people up is cheaper then feeding, housing and giving them free phones I guess.
What channel is the Saints-Falcons on?
@ darkwords:
I actually did do research on that.
darkwords wrote:
The only person he is looking out for is himself. I figured that out awhile ago.
@ Speranza:
NFL Network.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
Yeah, but look at all the oil we got out of it.
//
A free MMORPG game with billing support.
lobo91 wrote:
New John Hiatt. Well worth a listen. Oh, and Leia is looking good.
@ Speranza:
I purposely look past the policies of rock e rollers and enjoy the music. Melody over melodrama.
@ lobo91:
To each their own!
Speranza wrote:
On the channel no one gets.
@ lobo91:
No blood for oil!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
////
Oh wait!!!!!!!!!!!!
@ lobo91:
@ Rodan:
No oil for blood!
song_and_dance_man wrote:
I agree but I still cannot stand Roger Waters.
song_and_dance_man wrote:
Heh. Time Warner just added it to my lineup for… FREE! Falcons up 14-0, top of the 2nd.
Rodan wrote:
Haliburton!!!!
lobo91 wrote:
Isn’t that that black actress?
lobo91 wrote:
Morgue records?
lobo91 wrote:
Bain Capital!
And here’s some old John Hiatt
@ lobo91:
Blackwater!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
///
@ Speranza:
Big Bird!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@ huckfunn:
I don’t have any kids to embarrass, so I have to make do…
lobo91 wrote:
She’ll get even when you’re not looking.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
Quibbling are we? The Lost have spoken. /
Rodan wrote:
O’Reilly is a twit. And a large part of the reason we’re seen as out of touch with the culture.
huckfunn wrote:
/channeling Napoleon Dynamite— LUCKY
@ Mars:
The irony is that O’Reilly is not even really a Conservative! He gets obsessed with nonsense.
Rodan wrote:
War on Women!
Rodan wrote:
He is a self-promoting bloviator.
@ Speranza:
He’s an egomaniac!
@ Speranza:
Using simple slogans work for the Left. We should mimic that.
Rodan wrote:
Yep
Speranza wrote:
Yep yep.
Rodan wrote:
Yep yep yep
War on poverty
war on supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
War on food. War on bidness. War on consumers.
Domino’s: Obamacare requires 34 million pizza nutrition signs in stores
@ huckfunn:
That is what Bloomberg did.
@ huckfunn:
Why does it have to be printed signs?
Couldn’t a Domino’s location have an interactive screen that the customer types in the pizza they are ordering and it will show the customer the nutritional information of said pizza?
Going digital and interactive is much cheaper.
huckfunn wrote:
And not coughing up a wad of cheese will cause asphyxiation…death by pizza. Thus is my curse and so it will be. Bureaucratic ass wipes be damned.
huckfunn wrote:
The Domino theory—destroying the economy in order to save it—is well on its way.
Calo wrote:
yes but you pusha da button for mushroom and it say you vote for Obama! you push peppers, it say Obama! interactive it is a corruption of of Gods plan that you eatta da food.
Calo wrote:
The Obamunists couldn’t care less about “doing it cheaper”. It’s all about the excercise of raw power and beating the masses into submission.
brookly red wrote:
I knew that this story would get yer attention.
@ brookly red:
Nobody will be able to afford pizza anyway if they don’t get that famous original raise.
Obama’s fiscal cliff proposals
Apparently, we’re supposed to believe this crap will prevent us from going over the fiscal cliff…
huckfunn wrote:
the irony is they think that Americans will read factual information and make choices in their best interests… If that were the case they would be in prison not in command.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
Papa John will have to capitulate to the Domino theory. That’ll piss him off.
They can have my pepperoni slice when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
huckfunn wrote:
Remember it was you that invoked the power of my curse…
merry christmas yaaarrr!!!
mfhorn wrote:
LOL we each owe over $200,000 we are way over the cliff, I say burn baby burn. Bring it all down.
@ mfhorn:
Well, yeah…you wouldn’t want to address the source of the problem, would you? That would be crazy…
//
@ rain of lead:cool
brookly red wrote:
Scary.
@ lobo91:
Laughable, literally:
Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, says he “burst into laughter” Thursday when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner outlined the administration proposal for averting the fiscal cliff. He wasn’t trying to embarrass Geithner, McConnell says, only responding candidly to his one-sided plan, explicit on tax increases, vague on spending cuts…
Geithner suggested $1.6 trillion in tax increases, McConnell says, but showed “minimal or no interest” in spending cuts. When congressional leaders went to the White House three days after the election, Obama talked of possible curbs on the explosive growth of food stamps and Social Security disability payments. But since Geithner didn’t mention them, those reductions appear to be off the table now, McConnell says.
@ momcat:
yep
got our christmas duds on
Good thing we weren’t planning on using tax revenues to pay for entitlements:
rain of lead wrote:
http://theulstermanreport.com/2012/11/29/mitch-mcconnel-signals-to-other-republicans-shut-up-about-new-taxes/
McConnel is actually being pretty strong on this stuff right now. Much better than Boehner is on the other end.
rain of lead wrote:
burn baby burn, bring it all down.
@ momcat:
mom and rain, you are both looking very festive tonight.
But, I’m done with Christmas this year, bah humbug.
@ lobo91:
gee lobo
that makes no sense
when you don’t have any money to go to the movies
the only thing left for people to do is stay home and
F**K
@ Mars:
Well, McConnell is in the Senate, where Reid flat refuses to bring up anything Republicans propose for a vote. Makes his job much easier.
@ rain of lead:
rain of lead wrote:
they are figuring out a way to tax that too.
@ Calo:
my brothers funeral was today
I can be sad or be happy and enjoy the season
I know what my brother would have wanted
lobo91 wrote:
That is true.
@ huckfunn:
More cushin’, less pushin’?
lobo91 wrote:
Harry says “We’ve Already Done More Than A Billion Worth of Cuts, We Need To Get Some Credit For That”… So there!
@ Calo:
if anyone tells michelle she needs to haul ass…
it’s gonna take 2 or 3 trips
@ rain of lead
I needed a reason to uncork this bottle of wine sitting on my kitchen counter. Now, I found one.
We will celebrate his life tonight with you instead.
Calo wrote:
the phase is better pushin’ mam…
@ Calo:
that is an awesome plan ma’am
hoist a glass to a good man
Calo wrote:
Somethin like that. What a load.
@ brookly red:
Yep, but hers might be too much of a good thing.
rain of lead wrote:
you can be both.
Calo wrote:
I would rather be dipped in shit and feed to the flies…
@ brookly red:
She will be a poster child for diabetes Type II soon enough.
No cake for the Queen.
@ huckfunn:
Impressive. That’s almost 1/4 of an entire day’s worth of expenditures.
@ huckfunn:
Repeat that 149 times & I’ll give you a little credit there, Dingy. As long as you don’t start increasing again next year- in fact, next year, there need to be even MORE cuts, beyond that 150 billion.
brookly red wrote:
nope
been doing sad for several MONTHS now
done with it
his suffering is over and he has gone to a better place
gonna revel in the joy of the season
huckfunn wrote:
rain of lead wrote:
Jesus is the reason for the season!
brookly red wrote:
Actually they’ve figured out a way to tax you to pay for their birth control. So basically, they’ve figured out a way to tax you to pay for them doing it. Ain’t that a hoot?
rain of lead wrote:
“Clink”
Calo wrote:
umm, “good” and “her” (referring to Moochelle) do not belong in the same sentence.
/Just sayin’
huckfunn wrote:
Yeah, and how much of that was in defense cuts or other Constitutionally described duties of the federal government? I’ll lay money none of it was entitlements
lobo91 wrote:
a billion dollars… it sounds like a lot but it is less than what the feds spent on xerox toner today.
Tap … Tap… Is this thing on?
AZfederalist wrote:
actually I don’t mind that tax… a dollar spent preventing another liberal is a dollar earned.
AZfederalist wrote:
just bring the whole thing down. burn baby burn. it’s over. the sooner the better.
@ brookly red:
We’re currently borrowing almost $4 billion a day.
So that covers 6 hours.
later ya’ll
been a very tiring day
Goodnight ROL. Continued prayers for you and your family.
@ 104 rain of lead: Played it.
oot is up
Speranza wrote:
I would gladly suit up with the Armed Forces of the Philippines. They lack funding, but they do not lack guts. I miss working with the PhilMars (Philippine Marines).
Now that the Pals have their state, recognized by the UN, doesn’t Israel now have the right to declare actual “true kill em all war” on them if they are attacked again? As Edward the Longshanks character said in Braveheart…
“One must see the good in every situation.”