[antimedia] antimedia: For some reason, the current conflict in the MidEast....

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Posted by antimedia:
For some reason, the current conflict in the MidEast....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1153280875.shtml


   ....has engendered a lot of [1]discussions about just war and
   "proportionate response". I don't pretend to understand it myself. An
   activity designed to rip people's limbs off, tear their bodies in half
   and pulverize their insides seems the farthest thing from "just" and
   "ethical" to me.
   Oh, I understand what they're talking about. For some reason,
   intellectuals (not to be confused, necessarily, with intelligent
   people) feel the need to find some higher purpose in everything they
   do in order to justify the behavior. So they engage in endless
   hand-wringing and philosophical machinations trying to find a reason
   to justify war. They try to antiseptically dissect war and determine
   which parts are ethical and which are not, which are civilized and
   which are barbaric, what should be allowed and what should be
   forbidden.
   They understand that sometimes war is necessary, yet they find it hard
   to admit what war really is -- the absolutely nastiest, meanest,
   cruelest thing man can do to man.
   If it were possible, I would ban war and never allow it to happen
   again.
   It is not possible.
   George Patton [2]once said, "War is not a contest with gloves. It is
   resorted to only when laws, which are rules, have failed."
   Is there any question that the law had failed in the case of
   terrorism? Is there any question that the law has failed in the case
   of the Palestinians, the Syrians and the Iranians? Is there any
   question that the law had failed in the case of Saddam and Iraq?
   "Resorted to" is the key phrase in Patton's statement. War should not
   be taken lightly nor engaged in for frivolous reasons. But when war
   comes (and come it shall) it should be fought with a vicious ferocity
   that signals to the enemy that nothing but suffering and misery and
   death awaits them.
   The civilians that live among the terrorists and support their work
   are not innocent bystanders any more than the workers in a factory
   producing bombs are innocent bystanders. If war is to be won, then the
   factories must be destroyed along with the people who fight and the
   people who support the fighters.
   In Iraq, the terrorists and "insurgents" are fighting this way, while
   we are trying to fight a "polite" war. While the terrorists can never
   defeat us militarily, they can wear down the Iraqi people until they
   give in while discouraging Americans with the constant loss of our men
   and women. Until we fight them with the same ferocity (but not the
   same methods!) that they fight with, they will never stop fighting.
   Patton [3]also said, "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."
   Let's quit trying to put lipstick on a pig. The purpose of war is to
   kill. To kill quickly and violently. To so terrify the enemy with the
   violence of your killing that he loses the will to fight and runs
   away. To kill enough of the enemy that he gives up and decides to
   fight no more or loses the ability to resist.
   The longer you prolong war, by attaching all sorts of rules that
   hamper the warriors' ability to rain violence on the heads of the
   enemy, the longer you prolong the suffering and the greater the
   casualties will be, on both sides. It makes no sense to fight a
   "civilized" war, because, in the end, you will have killed more
   people, wrought more damage and delivered more suffering by far than
   you will by a short, extremely violent, devastatingly decisive
   conflict.
   This is not to say that there should be no rules for warfighters.
   There most certainly should be. But those rules must acknowledge the
   enormous gap between civilized behavior and war. They must err on the
   side of excusing the warrior for violent behavior while under fire
   while being quite harsh with those who initiate violence without good
   reason. (This principle may be seen in the differences between the
   Haditha incident and the rape and killing of an Iraqi teenager and her
   family.)
   It's past time for the so-called civilized world to admit what war
   really is -- something that should be avoided at all costs yet, when
   necessary, fought with the most ferocity possible in order to shorten
   its life. The more violent and devastating the war is, the less likely
   the opponents are to ever fight again.

References

   1. http://www.democracy-project.com/archives/002665.html
   2. http://www.pattonhq.com/unknown/chap13.html
   3. http://quotes.tubegator.com/patton.php