Posted on 05/14/2002 3:04:45 PM PDT by rohry
There's one weapon that international thugs have today that yesterday's international thugs didn't, and that's "world opinion."
[CAPITALISMMAGAZINE.COM] Europe has been at peace for an unprecedented nearly six decades. Why? It surely is not because of peace treaties between enemy states, and it's surely not because of disarmament. All that was tried before and failed.
The best explanation for Europe's unprecedented period of peace is that it was an armed camp bristling with weapons. Both adversaries -- NATO, backed by the United States, and the Warsaw Pact, backed by the Soviet Union -- knew for sure that aggression would produce Armageddon. Another reason is that the previous aggressor, Germany, was utterly and completely defeated. Had the Nazis, seeing they were losing the war, successfully sued for peace and a cessation of the hostilities, there would not have been this unprecedented period of peace in Europe. The Nazis would have simply regrouped.
The world can be thankful that today's mindset wasn't around during the 1940s. When we laid waste, through conventional warfare and firebombing, Dresden and other German cities -- and doing the same thing to Tokyo and other Japanese cities -- we didn't have to worry about the Red Cross and peace advocates going in afterward taking pictures and then holding us up to ridicule for "collateral damage." If they did, the public would have turned a deaf ear. After all, has there ever been war, at least during modern times, where noncombatants were not killed? Indeed, that is just one of the things that makes war so horrible.
If we had captured Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler or Hideki Tojo during the war, would anybody have cared much about their civil rights, like some people are caring about the civil rights of Taliban captives in Guantanamo, Cuba? I'm not making an argument for cruelty, but what civil rights are owed those hell-bent on trying to destroy our civilization? During World War II, how many Americans would have demanded that a captured German spy or saboteur be supplied with a taxpayer-provided legal team and jail amenities? Historically, spies and saboteurs have faced the hangman's noose or a firing squad.
This brings us to the Middle East crisis and the condemnation Israel has received for its military retaliation to Palestinian terrorist attacks. During U.S. Secretary of State Powell's visit, world news cameras captured a haggard, bedraggled Chairman Yasser Arafat asking: "Is this acceptable? Is this acceptable?" He was referring to the Israel Defense Forces' quarantine and destruction of his headquarters. I was trying to imagine the response of Americans, back in the '40s, to one of our Axis adversaries asking the same question.
There's one weapon that international thugs have today that yesterday's international thugs didn't, and that's "world opinion." Palestinian terrorists set off bombs to murder innocent Israeli civilians. When Israel retaliates, imposing high cost, Palestinians call up their only defensive weapon: world opinion. World opinion was also used by Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War by bringing the Western media to see the destruction of a supposed baby-milk factory by coalition forces.
How much should the Western world care about the opinion of those who demonstrate open hostility to the values that we hold, such as democratically elected officials, human rights and equality before the law? I say none whatsoever. At the same time, neither am I of the mind that we should interfere with their choices except to say that their acts of aggression should be met with harsh retaliation.
Were I prime minister of Israel, I'd trade peace for land on these terms: in exchange for each six months of peace, I'd completely turn over, say, five square miles of land. And for just one terrorist attack, I'd send in the Israel Defense Forces to take it all back.
Otherwise, a solid piece.
Here's how he should have ended this piece:
Just as the Allied forces in WW2 were unrelenting in their pursuit of the leaders of the Third Reich and the Empire of Japan, so should the Israelis approach the Palestinians with the non-negotiable, incontrovertible goal of total destruction of the Palestinian Authority, and complete and total surrender of every Palestinian, civilian or military.
Followed by their forced exile from all of Israel.
In this way only may a lasting peace may be achieved.
What do you think, Williams?
WIlliams is right, if we had listened to this brand of public opinion 60 years ago we'd all probably be speaking Japanese right now. Solution--do what's right and to hell with those who don't like it.
Thank you Jesus for this!
Which is why we have a functioning democracy/republic.
Which makes us the wealthiest, strongest nation.
Which is way long lines wait to immigrate to the US.
If you notice Alec Baldwin has yet to make good on his promise to leave the US if Bush wins!
When we are no longer at odds with the rest of the nations we will then be as morally bankrupt, corrupt, filthy and as poor as they are.
Why do think we are never understood and often out voted in the United Nations?
I have lived in Europe behind the Iron Curtain and I have traveled extensively.
The worst place under the worst democratic (Socialist) administration is better than the finest the world can offer.
How does one explain the unparalleled success of this brand new nation called the US: in business, education, technology, medicine?
Do you think that US citizens are smarter or that the air over North America makes us so?
The reason that the US is so very successful is not because of us, but because of our values.
IE -OUR OPINION.
The rest of the world has gone down the toilette when they can say, "Of course we don't approve of killing women and children, but let's have some sympathy for their reason".
No thanks, I have no sympathy to give, anymore than for ridding my flower bed of a nest of baby rattlesnakes. They are cowards, depraved animals, a quick and painless death is their only due, and exile is the only reward their families deserve.
Siss boom bah!
Nobody can riot their way into relevance, or bomb their way into a debate. It's simply wrong on every scale.
I fully concur with the part about their just desserts, but I believe the "quick and painless" part should be non-binding...
Good quote, but it doesn't really fit here. "World opinion" means governmental elites.
It might be an ugly thing to point out but there is a key difference between what the Nazis did to the Jews in WWII and what's going on now. The Jews of the 1930s and 1940s were not strapping on bombs and walking into the nearest Bierstube and blowing the place up. Hitler manufactured grievances against the Jews, the Jews do have actual grievances with the Palestinians.
I will say this: If this (Middle Eastern Crisis) had all been going on in say 1936 and the Palestinians wound up getting deported on a massive scale or otherwise put in concentration camps (without extermination) the world would've looked on such an action in a totally different vein than we do now. It's a messed up thing to say, but Hitler gave that course of action a bad name (keep in mind, I'm not talking about the extermination). He claimed the Jews were trying to undermine German society/culture and should therefore be dealt with but the Palestinians really are trying to destroy Israel...
Actually, Germans had the "life of Riley" here in POW camps - until we found out what they were doing to our troops.
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