What used to be common sense

In a letter to the editor of the LA Times (July 18th), a reader makes a point that used to be obvious to people but has become forgotten over the past 50 years of leftist indoctrination:

Re "Israel's risky response," editorial, July 14

The editorial's issues with Israel's "disproportionate" response seem to imply that the appropriate way to treat your enemy is to just hurt them a little more than they hurt you. This way your opponent will understand that you are serious, but things won't get out of hand.

Diplomacy and negotiation, not limited violence, are the appropriate way to try to send signals and keep a situation from getting out of hand.

The situation with the Palestinian Authority/Hamas and Hezbollah is already out of hand. Proportionality is really a demand that the stronger party fight at the level of the weaker party.

This is a cruel [emphasis added] position leading to a drawn-out, slowly escalating conflict, like Vietnam.

History shows that the surest way to minimize the suffering of civilians is through a short war, and that requires the use of immediate and overwhelming force to gain clear objectives.

There are generally two objectives to which this force can be effectively applied: breaking the enemy's political will and breaking the enemy's military capability to pursue its political will. If war must be fought, it must be won.

What Israel should do

They should take the following advice:

General Richard Hawley [ed. Charley Hall has informed me that this was not said by General Hawley. It was a parody email sent around. Still, this parody is better advise than most commentaries I have read] was the commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and was commander of the Allied Air Forces in Central Europe, at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

When he was asked, "Does violence only lead to more violence?", this is what he had to say.

This one is so stupid you usually have to be the president of an Ivy League university to say it. Here's the truth, which you know in your heads and hearts already: Ineffective, unfocused violence leads to more violence. Limp, panicky, half-measures lead to more violence. However, complete, fully thought-through, professional, well-executed violence never leads to more violence because, you see, afterwards, the other guys are all dead. That's right, dead. Not "on trial," not "reeducated, "not "nurtured back into the bosom of love." Dead. D-E-Well, you get the idea.

If only Israel understood this.

Anyone have a good answer?

In a news interview, the Father of Yehuda Basel Hy"d, asks:

"Why did they put my son's life in danger instead of sending in the air force?"

The answer is: "the lefties and all those who have adopted a western-based morality value the lives of enemy civilians more than our own soldiers. The thought of 'innocent' Arabs dying disturbs them much more than a Jewish soldier being killed."

In any of the lefties out there have a better answer that makes them look like something higher than dreg, please feel free to let us know.