What Dave Said...

...Ben Stein-style:

Because it is impossible to beat a terrorist movement without using terror tactics, and we as a people of compassion and restraint, both in Israel and the U.S., will not use terror tactics even when survival is at stake, and this means we will not survive.

It is very much as if, after Pearl Harbor, after the bombing of London, we said, "We will fight the Japanese and the Nazis, but we will only use humane means, and we will show total restraint and will never kill civilians. And we will search our souls and agonize about every move."

Roger that.

The American Spectator: How to Lose to Terrorists


I, like Dave, am not agonizing about Qana.

More:

We know, from e-mails discovered after the Israelis killed four UN observers at an outpost more than a week ago, that the UN "peacekeepers" had been overrun and held captive by Hizballah. The UN people wanted to get out of the path of the battle, but the Hizballah wouldn't let them leave. On Sunday morning, we awoke to the reports of horrific civilian casualties in the Lebanese town of Qana. Dozens of children are among the dead.

Qana, like many other villages in south Lebanon, was papered with Israeli leaflets warning the citizens to flee the impending battle. Israeli aircraft have been broadcasting warnings and the Israeli forces -- imitating what our Commando Solo aircraft did in Iraq before the 2003 invasion began -- were literally telephoning Lebanese in their homes asking them to get out of the line of fire. Thousands have not. Why?

Israel as George Bush

It reminds me of The Final Countdown, 1980, when F-14s from an American carrier were buzzing, and being buzzed by, World War Two era Zeros. The F-14s go head-to-head with the Zeros, who narrowly miss the F-14s with machine gun fire.

"What are we messing around with these guys for????", one of the F-14 pilots asks.

I am reminded of that.