A Sterile War

What the world wants, what the world expects, is a sterile war, a war in which no non-combatant is harmed, or even inconvenienced. Surely this is a universal hope, a universal goal. Who, after all, would want to hurt innocent people?

It is from this thesis that a large portion of the world judges the Israeli/Hezbollah conflict.

But human beings have failed themselves. We have failed to learn how to fight a war without injuring or killing innocent bystanders.

The Israelis are guilty, in the eyes of many—perhaps most—of the world’s peoples, of gross and deliberate atrocities against innocent non-combatant Lebanese. Israel shares this dubious honor with the United States—the most glaring purveyor of evil—on the world stage. The United States has foisted unmentionable horrors on the good and innocent people of Afghanistan and Iraq. Israel has done likewise in Lebanon.

The United States was attacked and 3,000 of its citizens were killed on September 11, 2001 by Islamic terrorists and Israel was attacked by a group of Islamic radicals three weeks ago. The natural response from both the U.S. and Israel is to go after their attackers. But a large number of world citizens insist that they must not harm or kill even one non-combatant.

In the eyes of this faction of people, however large it may be, both the United States and Israel have broken this covenant with the world. The U.S. and Israel are evil. The U.S. and Israel are war criminals.

This is why this faction supports the enemies of the U.S. and Israel. This is why it supports al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah.

If the United States and Israel are to defend themselves, if they are to defeat their sworn enemies—the radical Islamic groups that have sworn to destroy them—they must do so without harming or killing innocent non-combatants.

Technorati Tags: Terrorism, War, Lebanon, Israel, Politics