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Justice requires a disproportionate response

Posted by Richard on July 19, 2006

On Tuesday, I mentioned Neo-neocon’s post about the danger of proportionality. Well, Baron Bodissey at Gates of Vienna wrote brilliantly about this nonsense of proportionality on Monday:

If you could cut through all the Kofi-speak to the heart of the matter, what do you think would be a “proportionate” response to the provocations Israel has endured? Do the Israelis have to fire Qassam rockets into Gaza at Hamas? Do Jewish kids have to strap on bomb belts and blow themselves up in Ramallah?

As someone recently said, it’s like a bank robbery — when the call comes in that three men are robbing a bank, then the cops can only send in three patrolmen to stop them.

Or imagine that you’re woken up in the middle of the night by a burglar in the living room. You grab your twelve-gauge and creep down the stairs very quietly. But when you flip on the light and surprise the burglar, he’s armed with only a knife! What do you do? Why, you drop the shotgun, rush to the kitchen, and rummage through the drawers for a knife. And not just any knife — it has to be no longer or sharper than the one the burglar has!

The contemptible blather about "disproportionate response" comes from people who refuse to distinguish between the aggressor and the victim — who remain morally neutral as to which one ought to prevail, and thus believe that "fairness" requires each to have an equal chance.

I'm a fan of disproportionate responseFor those of us who insist that there is no right to rape, mug, burgle — or murder (again!) six million Jews — the concept of proportionality of response is a moral abomination. The correct response to aggression is whatever is necessary to stop it, to punish the aggressor, and to prevent repetition of the aggression in the future. The correct response to Islamofascism is to wipe it out.

Decent people, of course, do their best to minimize harm to innocent bystanders — and the extremely low number of deaths, given the number of air strikes and artillery bombardments, makes it clear that Israel is taking extraordinary measures in this regard. Perhaps too much so.

It’s not only unwise, it’s downright wrong to stay your hand so much that the aggressor might win — or survive to prey on more victims in the future. Don’t those future victims have just as much claim on your concern as the bystanders today? More so, in my opinion, if the bystanders aren’t so innocent — and that’s certainly the case for most of the "civilian casualties" counted up by the media in southern Lebanon. These are the people who support Hezbollah, store Hezbollah weapons in their houses, and cheer on and resupply the Hezbollah fighters — likely, their brothers and sons — firing rockets from their doorsteps.

I’m joining the good Baron, and saying to our friends in Israel, "Bring on the Disproportionate Response!"

UPDATE: Welcome, visitors from The Atheist Jew — please have a look around. You may see some post titles in the left sidebar that interest you.

UPDATE 2: The latest version of the proportionality complaint, blathered about endlessly on MSM outlets on Thursday, is the disparity between the number of Israeli deaths and Lebanese deaths (which are almost all Hezbollah deaths). The morally neutral "fairness" advocates object to the fact that Israel wages war more effectively than Hezbollah!

Would these asshats like to see an international Handicapper General, a la Harrison Bergeron, reduce the effectiveness of Israel’s weapons, tactics, and troops so that they don’t have an unfair advantage over the genocidal maniacs on the other side?

If you’re not familiar with Kurt Vonnegut’s short story masterpiece, Harrison Bergeron, click that link and read it right now.
 

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10 Responses to “Justice requires a disproportionate response”

  1. T F Stern said

    This reminds me of the school system we have where everyone must finish in a tie so nobody gets their feeling hurt.

    I had a Sunday School class years ago, all the kids were 11 years old going on 12. I wanted to engage them in some competetive writing so I bought a $10 pocket watch to use as a “carrot” for the winner. I called it the “Cheap Watch Contest” and all the kids got to writing and submitting their entries.

    I got called to the side by the Sunday School folks because there could only be one winner and it might hurt some kids feelings. Jeezza Louise, no kidding, only one winner.

    These are the same folks who don’t want any on lookers to accidentally get hurt in war. These are the folks who are in charge of teaching our kids, our government and about everything else it appears.

    Maybe we should clean house and start over.

  2. Anonymous said

    I have a question.

    If a terrorist attempts to blow me up but I instead get the drop on him and shoot him through his Muslim Chicken head, is that a disproportionate response? Would that be wrong?

    Of course not.

    When the kumbaya gang uses the term “Disproportionate,” what they really mean is less than an “Equal” response. In other words, they mean we should cut-n-run.

    Nice blog Combs. Please keep spouting off. We love it.

  3. april said

    Excellent post. Agreed. When facing a bully one must SQUASH the bully so there will be no question as to future attacks, and other bullies will take heed. It is the ONLY option.

  4. USpace said

    .

    absurd thought –

    God of the Universe says

    never use nukes…

    .

  5. John R. Low said

    Ahmadinejad got his start in the hostage-taking business in 1979. The U.S. Embassy in Tehran is now the HQ of Terror Cental (Al-Quds).

    They have made hostages of the Iranian people. They boldly kidnap British soldiers patroling against smugglers.

    This regime even sends propaganda agents to play with the minds of our young people on myspace, youtube and other social networking sites. They are fanning the flames of the outragious 9/11 Truth” movement.

    Let’s nab these thugs and send ’em to GITMO to rot (and if a few of them get STOMPED by U.S. Marines, Army, Navy and Air Force, oh well.)

  6. rgcombs said

    Thanks for the comment, John! I think the Brits need to ask themselves the question WWMTD — What Would Margaret Thatcher Do?

    I don’t think she’d merely object and appeal to the U.N.

    I like Gingrich’s idea: (1) Send in commandos to take out Iran’s one and only refinery. (2) Stop all tanker traffic in and out. (3) Tell Ahm-a-doin-jihad that if the Brits aren’t released, all of Iran will be walking within 30 days.

  7. John R, "Fogbart" Low said

    The recent kidnapping of 15 UK soldiers by Iran was done primarily to gain the release of one of Iran’s top Al-Quds agents captured in Iraq. The business of Al-Quds is subversion, infiltration, murder, suppression of dissent, propaganda and psychological warfare. Now, It is almost time for Election 2008. What is Al-Quds’ main target right now? The mind of your child who loves to make friends on the Internet! Ask me (I beg you, I DARE you) to back up that statement.

  8. if i could said

    pelosi and the other democrat socialist traitors should be arrested, tried for traeson, exicuted, by hanging from the golden gate bridge. and while I am at it nuke syria, and Iran. and cuold some body tell the Isreal government to stop playing with their enemy.

  9. Zylo said

    I am amazed at the depths of deceit zionists sink to while attmepting to justify their OPPRESSION of Palestinians. It only takes common sense to realize who the aggressor is…articles such as this one cannot be taken seriously by any unbiased intelligent individual.

  10. wondering said

    Why waste your time with proportionality vs disproportionate response? Why hold back? If you don’t want to try for nonviolent peace, just be honest about it & use the maximum firepower. Nuke your enemies, destroy everyone at once, including yourselves and the rest of the world and get it over with! Otherwise it’s just some stupid tit-for-tat game.

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