Day By Day

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Michael Goodwin Says "Give War A Chance"

Writing in the Daily News, Michael Goodwin makes the case for allowing the Israeli-Hiz'bullah conflict to proceed to its natural conclusion.
The scenes are heartbreaking. Mangled civilians, wailing children and wholesale destruction fills the landscape. Lebanon is being shredded by the whirlwind of Israeli bombs.

"Stop the violence" is the natural human response to these grisly images. It's how most of us feel....

Yet now is not the time to stop this brutal war. Human nature notwithstanding, peace is not always the best answer. Not when wrongs have to be righted. Sometimes, deadly force is the righteous option.

He gives a series of arguments in favor of war, of which the most important is this:

[T]he call for restraint reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of terrorists. Their barbarism, including the beheadings of hostages, sets them apart from mankind. They have proven they are not subject to rational approaches. They are not interested in compromise any more than a mad dog will share its bone. Hezbollah and its Iranian patrons don't want to make a deal with Israel. They want to destroy Israel. And then America and Europe and Christians and ... .

And that's the real question isn't it? Can you compromise with fanatics dedicated to your destruction? Normal diplomacy is based on a presumption of rationality and a calculus of interests. Neither would seem to apply in this case.

Read his column here.

James Bond: Do you expect me to talk?

Goldfinger: Why no, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die.

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