Reuters reports, “Israel rejects US-backed Lebanon ceasefire plan, hits Beirut again” and adds that France also supports a ceasefire. It is easily understandable, given that the last time France won a major war on its own was during Napoleon’s reign, that this country wants Israel to stop battering the same terrorists who murdered 53 French troops in 1983. French president Emmanuel Macron said of Benjamin Netanyahu, “It would be a mistake by the prime minister to refuse it because he would be taking responsibility for regional escalation,” as if there were not an all-out war already in progress. It would not surprise me if Vichy collaborators like Marshal Petain, Pierre Laval, and Admiral Darlan made similar comments about Winston Churchill’s “regional escalation” circa 1941. Churchill is credited, and rightly so, with saving civilization from the Axis, and Netanyahu looks like the right person to save civilization from Iranian-backed terrorism.
Less understandable is why our country also wants Israel to accept a ceasefire with Hezb’allah. Israel, in fact, did the United States’ work for it by killing Ibrahim Aqil, a terrorist responsible for murdering 241 U.S. Marines and other service personnel in 1983. Whether Israel is going to claim the $7-million reward for taking out our trash is yet to be seen, but the bottom line is that Israel did what we should have done ourselves.
Hezb’allah’s Acts of Mass Destruction
Let’s remember how we got here, even if Biden and Macron do not. First, Hezb’allah has no right to be in Lebanon at all. Second, Hezb’allah amassed more than a hundred thousand rockets, whose sole purpose is to murder Israeli civilians. It’s to be remembered that, when Cuba began to amass missiles in 1963, we risked nuclear war with Russia to get them removed. Third, Hezb’allah has fired more than ten thousand of these missiles at Israel. One missile constitutes an act of war and a de facto declaration of war. If we assume half-ton warheads, with each having the explosive power of 1,000 pounds of TNT, ten thousand of them come to 63.3 equivalent kilotons, or more than eight Hiroshima-class bombs, aimed primarily at civilians. That rates a nuclear response, and Hezb’allah would have probably gotten one from any nuclear-armed country except Israel.
Hezb’allah is now losing the war it started, and losing it badly. The government of Israel would be grossly negligent were it to fail to pursue the advantage it has gained by battering Hezb’allah into the dirt so it will be unable to cause further trouble for Israel or the people of Lebanon. The fact that the government of the United States, as led by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, has given Israel irresponsible, reckless, and incompetent advice of this nature speaks for itself. It is the same mentality, to the effect that it is possible to be just a little bit at war, that squandered the lives of more than 58,000 of our soldiers in Vietnam and lost the region to the communists, who then perpetrated numerous crimes against humanity.
One Cannot Be a Little Bit at War
Let’s make something clear: one is either at peace or at war. When Hezb’allah fired the first rocket, not to mention thousands more like it, at Israel, it was clearly no longer at peace with Israel, which means it is at war. When one is at war, one uses against the enemy whatever level of violence is necessary to terminate the conflict. Admiral John Fisher, the architect of the Dreadnought program, stated accurately, “The essence of war is violence. Moderation in war is imbecility.” Readers can judge for themselves the mental capacities of Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron according to Fisher’s standards.
White House National Security Communications adviser John Kirby said, “We still believe an all-out war is not the best way to get people back in their homes. If that’s the goal, we don’t believe an all-out war is the right way to do that.” If he does not recognize an all-out war when he sees one — namely, terrorists launching roughly one third as many rockets at Israel as Germany fired at the United Kingdom during the Second World War — then he should be in a different job. The people can return safely to their homes only after Hezb’allah’s rockets are destroyed or otherwise removed totally. A New York Post opinion piece meanwhile adds, “Hezb’allah cease-fire plan proves Joe Biden, Kamala Harris are both naïve AND heartless” and states the U.S. is withholding intelligence information from Israel that would help Israel destroy Hezb’allah.
Make no mistake: the sole effect of a three-week ceasefire would be to give Hezb’allah a respite during which it can bring in more weapons, and relocate and hide its current assets, so as to be in a better position to resume its attacks in October. A diplomatic solution that leaves Hezb’allah and its weapons in Lebanon, right on Israel’s doorstep, makes as much sense as stopping a surgical operation for cancer to leave most of the tumor inside the patient. We should have learned from the events of 1938 that diplomacy with terrorists and dictators is worse than futile. Diplomacy under these conditions is like an opiate that conceals the symptoms of a deadly disease while it allows the disease in question to progress.
If Biden and Macron do not know this, then the reader is free to apply Admiral Fisher’s statement and form his own conclusions. Israel will meanwhile do the civilized world a favor by breaking the backs of Iran’s Hezb’allah and also Hamas proxies, and it should be encouraged to get the job done for good.
Civis Americanus is the pen name of an American Thinker contributor who remembers the lessons of history and wants to ensure that our country never needs to learn those lessons again the hard way.
Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.
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