Quote:
Originally posted by Sidd Finch
I reject the notion that the victim of attacks needs to respond with what you call "proportion". Israel does not have to limit its actions to "you kidnapped one person, so we'll kidnap one" or "you killed one, so we'll kill one." No more than I think the US should have limited operations in Afghanistan to killing 3000 people or knocking down a few buildings -- after all, that's "all" they did to us.
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Sorry, Sid, but you know this is a cop out. No one is saying that the response should be exactly equal. After 9/11, we did not nuke the entire middle east. Nor did we invade the homeland of the majority of the hijackers. Why not? Wouldn't it have been "very heavy and painful retaliation?" We didn't do it becaue it would have been unjust, disproportionate, and probably counterproductive.
I would argue that endangering the lives of thousands of civilians (even if they sympathize with your enemy) and taking out a democratically elected government over a single kidnapped soldier is similarly unjust, disproportionate and probably counterproductive.
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