Somebody explain to me HOW razing a town to the ground is going to help you get your soldiers back?

Question

How does the thinking behind that work?
WHY does shooting missiles at a district under some vague notion that's where the terrorists hang out, after first dropping pamphlets telling anyone who isn't a terrorist to get the hell out, have any chance of working?

And why are so many Amercians SO behind this? It makes no sense to me. I'd love it if somebody ACTUALLY defended this point of view without spewing a load of boo-yah militant kill-them-terrorists claptrap.

Answer 1

The issue is not these soldiers specifically but what these soldiers capture and the circumstances surrounding them reflect.

The formation of the current Israeli state was the result of a gaurantee from the British government to European Jews during WW II.

Britain controlled most of the region of the Middle East, and while they didn't exactly keep their word about an Israeli state in the end, a great many palestinians were displaced to form the current Jewish State.

This applies only generally to the Israel Lebanon situation, but here is the basic point . . .

Since its inception, Israel has hardly been recognized by most Middle Eastern Countries and as you know, many different and also loosely connected terrorist organizations have arisen as a furtherance of Muslim agendas.

Ironically, both the Jews and the Muslims, no matter in what rhetoric they may dress their intentions, believe in a final world domination of their particular religious groups.

They actually do. The Jews believe that the whole world is theirs from God, and the Muslims also believe that one day the whole earth will be covered in Allah's glory.

First of all, from a simple political perspective, Israel's actions are actually quite legitimate, because these Muslim governements, even the supposedly pro-democracy anti-extremist ones do nothing to reign in the terrorist groups operating within their borders, they constantly claim helplessness, or else they give a bunch of rhetorical crap about the peace process, but in doing nothing, they provide effective safe haven for all of these terrorist organizations.

The Israelis know this is the case and so after years of unrestrained terrorism and cheap promises of a peace process, they realize that the only people who can reign in the terrorists are the Israelis themselves.

Lebanon may suffer because their own government allows terrorists to conduct aggressive violent activities against a neighboring state, even if they themselves are not perpetrating these acts.

In reality though, none of these people are interested in peace, they both believe in total world domination for the glory of Allah, or Jehovah or whoever.

If you read the more open uncensored rhetoric of leaders from both sides throughout history, it becomes very clear that they are all overtaken by a kind of madness that justifies anything they do because they will win in the end anyway. God will give them victory and they must only patiently persist until the whole world is theirs.

The truth is they are all a bunch of crazies who should be nuked off of the face of the earth.

i will gaurantee you, if you could get inside private Israeli conferences, you would see that these people only present a peaceful front to secure U.S. cooperation because that pretense of democracy and law and order, gains them our alliance, and nuclear as well as other kinds of assistance.

They are very shrewd and they are only aggrandizing their position in plans for a move toward total world domination.

If I were an Arab I would hate the Jews also, and if I were a Jews I would despise arabs, because as a Jew, that is what I would do.

Stupid middle easterners, once again, I reiterate, they all need to be nuked off of the face of the earth.

If I lived in the middle east, I would get me a sub machine gun and just start spraying in all directions. I wouldn't live long but I would have done more for world peace in that moment then has been done by anyone in the middle east for the past thousand years.

This holy land crap is all a bunch of sh*t. I am a Christian myself, but crusaders, jews, muslims, etc. etc. etc. even I can recognize a bunch of lunatics when I see them.

Answer 2

I have seen pictures on the web of some suburbs of Beirut are starting to look like what they did in the late seventies and early eighties. And the Beirut International Airport runway looking like the suface to the moon. And it is very difficult to imagine what Israel will gain from bombing residential areas. Such rampant destruction of infrastrucure will not gain anything, apart from turning the local people more hostile towards Israel. Israel has threatened to destroy the electricity grid as well. A Canadian family of six has been killed as well in one of these bombings. And the sad part is that now the bombings have made bigger headlines because people of a western nation a member state of the G8 have been killed. The killing of Lebanese civilians was not making such big headlines.
Israel has to negotiate in a manner that is more acceptable. And the western nations have to tell Israel that it should defend itself, but by no means bomb innocent civilians. If 5 terrorists take shelter in a neighbourhood where thousands of innocent civilians reside it should be no justification to destroy the whole area just to eliminate those five. This was done by the German SS Einsatzgruppen in east europe and Russia during World War II to fight the partisans.
And finally your questions why are so many Americans behind it? Firstly I feel that most of the Americans are unaware of the real problem in Palestine because of misinformation and secondly many americans believe that military force is an answer to the problem of terrorism. Terrorisim is never eliminated by force it can be suppressed for some time, ultimately you have to look at the political reasons for the cause of terrorism. The same way that the occupation of Iraq will always feed terrorism. And the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghansitan will not be stopped by sending more and more troops.

Answer 3

Its the same as raising your children. When they do something they ae not supposed to do, you punish them in a manner that persuades them not to do it again. If they do it again, obviously the punishment was not high enough to dissuade them from doing wrong the second time. Eventually you step up the punishment to a point that they are not willing to accept the consequences of doing the act, that they think twice about doing the crime as they will not want to suffer the consequences.

Only difference now is that its grown men that are being delt with and not children, They are playing with bigger toys that make big booms, and the price to pay sometimes is death.

Sometimes action is taken to stop things from happening again. One example is that The United States does not negotiate with terrorists. If you do it once, it sets a precedence that others will follow so they can get what the last guy got. Kidnapping in the Middle East is something that works since the governments of the kidnapped negotiate with the kidnappers. Thats why the kidnapping continues, there is a prize at the end if you kidnap the right people's people. I'm quite sure there was much talk and thinking involved prior to the attacks. It wasn't spur of the moment, no vague notion of where the targets they wanted to hit were. From what I've heard on the news, the Israelis are actually going out of their way to not hit civilians or the Lebanese Armed Forces. They gave warning prior to attacking the Airport, stopped attacking so civilian airlines could depart, and resumed attaking when the airlines were clear of the area. Some civilians are getting hit, and that is unfortunate. When is someone on here going to denounce the rocket attacks on Israel that do hit indiscriminately. They don't hit military targets, government infrastructure, troops on the ground... They hit children's schools or a random house in the middle of a residential district, if they hit anything at all, because they have no control of their weapons. They truely are terror weapons.

Just because some militaries can pick which house is going to be hit and destroy it does not mean they can control the people that get hurt in the blast. Warfare has come a long way from when it took hundreds of bombers and thousands of bombs to hit a single building, when an entire town was razed to the ground for a single target. Civilized nations do not attack the civilian populace on purpose. Civilians do get hurt and killed in the process, and that is unfortunate.

On man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. We've all heard this one before. One man's freedom fighter actually stops when they have freedom, or is willing to coexist with another, not take someone elses freedoms away. The other is a terrorist. One that wants to take away other's freedoms, their right to do as they choose, pray as they choose, even their right to exist. HAMAS and Hezbollah want Israel to cease to exist. Anyone want to tell me what happened to the last guy that wanted all Jews to not exist? WWII, Hitler, Nazi's... any of that sound familiar?

To wherever you are, wherever you live, I'm glad that you have the freedom to ask this question in the safety of your home without the fear of someone coming into your home to kill you and your family, and the family next to you, and the family next to them..... just because you read a different book, and call your God by a different name, and practice a different religion. I'm sure that is something that you don't have to deal with.

In America, 230 years ago, my Forefathers had the will to stop others from imposing their will on all Americans. We get to live free, we have the Right to Life, the Right to Liberty, and the Right to persue Happiness, as long as it does not infringe on another person's right to the same.

My question to you is: How can you be against a people that are literally fighting for their lives? Fighting for their right to Exist, again? They just want to co-exist with their neighbors.

They are called terrorists and terrorist organizations for a reason. They all get N's for Needs Improvement for Works and Plays Well with Other Children.

Answer 4

People like Hamas and Hizbollah should not kidnap people. They are no match for the might of Israel and Israel is showing them exactly that. Israel can not be seen to be a "walk over" by anyone. They have Iran threatening their ar$e (i'm English, thats *** to anyone else) how else can they react? They can not be seen as "soft" .

Lebanon and Palestine, need to give up those Israeli soldiers and it will cease. It appears that The Lebanese & Palestinian "governments" are letting Terrorist militants take control , and that is causing these problems. They must give up the soldiers to save the lives of their own people.

Thats how I see it.

Answer 5

By destroying the infrastructure an area is brought to its knees economically. Once the hardships of life begin to take their toll, the leadership has no option save to relent to the demands of its attackers (or risk a coup). Ergo, in this case, Lebannon will send its Army in where Hezbbollah is and attempt to gain a modicum of control. This will appease the Israeli's but the downside is this: it may cause a Civil war a la 1975-1990. Perhaps this is what Israel is hoping for?

Answer 6

Israel is a client state of the U.S. If Israel takes bellicose measures against Palestine, Lebanon, etc, it's probably with the full backing and support of the U.S. All of Israel's weapons are from the U.S., anyway, including its "hidden" nukes.

Razing a town to the ground, as you said, does have the intended effect in the short-term, but only results in tit-for-tat violence in the long-run.

Anyway, this has been going on since the founding of Israel alomst 60 years ago, so nothing new here.

Answer 7

It is a pure show of power, trying to get the soldiers back or punish those who took them. Israel's ship was hit by drone missile & Lebanon leader said they would bomb & kill Isrealis.
Were you expecting them to accept it? If Mexico sent soldiers into USA to kidnap soldier & kill 2 soldiers, then kidnap 2 more, I as a mother of Army Lt. would lead the charge to take them down until soldiers were returned. Lebanon is not the innocent in this & war is hell - it usually has many families caught in attacks.
I, as an American, understand no one comes on our soil & kills soldiers or kidnaps them. Isreal is not a sympathetic victim but Lebanon started it & bit off more than they could chew.

Answer 8

It gets a point across. Either disarm and disband Hezbollah or face retaliation for actions the group takes action against Israel. If Lebanon allows such a group to operate freely and even hold seats in parliament, then Israel has a right to strike.

Answer 9

If you go under my questions and read, I posted a question about "what is going on w/ Isreal and Lebonnon?"

There, I found some of the history of the two countries. If you read about the history, then you will start to understand.

I was thinking the same as you - until I started studying up.

Answer 10

The idea is to make the cost of keeping the hostages higher than any benefit they could derive from holding them.
Most of life can be explained by simple economics.