Proportionality & Finishing the Job

"Proporional" and "Disportional use of force" are the catch-phrases of the day used by European officials and the international media when they say that Israel has the right to defend herself, but.... just not the way she's doing it. It's akin to people saying that they support the troops, but.... they're murdering and raping and terrorizing Iraqis. You know what that "but" means? As a great man said, "but" is used to tell people to disregard everything you just said; now, I'm going to tell you what I really think. "I support the troops, but they're evil warmongering pigs." "I think Israel has the right to defend herself, but she just shouldn't be using any military means to do so." Well, here's a little fyi for all of you liberals out there complaining that Israel is using "disproportionate" force because there are more Lebanese casualties than Israeli. Proportionality is NOT determined by the casuality ratio. There are various variable involved that has resulted in more Lebanese people dying. Most of which is the fact that Hezbollah has purposely set up its headquarters and stockpiles of weapons in the midst of highly condensed population centers, ensuring more civilian casualties in order for more officials to make this "disproportional" non-sense claim. But, here are some things that other pretty smart people had to say.

(Hat tip: Blogs for Bush and AbbaGav)
Excerpt:

In World War II, the United States suffered around 92,000 battle deaths in the Pacific theater: 92,000 in the Pacific theater. Can you imagine how it would have gone if the Drive-By Media then were counting up to 1,000 and then 2,000 and then 2,500? Ninety-two thousand battle deaths in the Pacific theater. The Japanese though? Take a guess Mr. Snerdley. What were the Japanese battle deaths -- not civilian deaths, Japanese battle deaths? 1.59 million: 1,590,000 battle deaths suffered by the Japanese. That means that it's a ratio, and this doesn't really state it properly. Twenty-two Japanese battlefield deaths for every one American battlefield death. This does not include the million more that were targeted, civilians targeted, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Battle deaths, 1.59 million. That's in addition to the civilian deaths, ranging from several hundred thousand to more than a million. Precise figures hard to come by since estimates vary so widely on the number of deaths as a result of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Now, if you're going to say, "Well, that was a disproportionate response by the United States of America, disproportionate response. Why, we had to kill 22 of them for every one we lost just because they attacked Pearl Harbor?" Read the whole thing...

Excerpt:

Everyone present was horrified and was prepared to absolutely murder this Marine, but my shipmate quickly turned on him and began to single-handedly back him towards a corner with a series of stinging jabs and upper cuts that gave more than a hint to a youth spent boxing in a small gym in the Bronx.

Each punch opened a cut on the Marine's startled face and by the time he had been backed completely into the corner he was blubbering for someone to stop the fight. He invoked his split lips and chipped teeth as reasons to stop the fight. He begged us to stop the fight because he could barely see through the river of blood that was pouring out of his split and swollen brows.

Nobody moved. Not one person.
....
Several people in the bar took a few tentative steps as though they wanted to try to break it up at that point, but hands reached out from the crowd and held them tight. I'm not ashamed to say that mine were two of the hands that held someone back.

You see, in between each blow the sailor had begun chanting a soft cadence: "Say [punch] you [punch] give [punch] up [punch]... say [punch] you [punch]were [punch] wrong [punch]".

He had been repeating it to the Marine almost from the start but we only became aware of it when the typical barroom cheers had died down and we began to be sickened by the sight and sound of the carnage.

This Marine stood there shrieking in the corner of the bar trying futilely to block the carefully timed punches that were cutting his head to tatters... right down to the skull in places. But he refused to say that he gave up... or that he was wrong.
....
A Must read! Read the whole thing...