Here is Antony Blinken’s itinerary for this past week, as published by the Department of State: “Secretary Antony J. Blinken will travel to Istanbul, Türkiye; Crete, Greece; Amman, Jordan; Doha, Qatar; Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates; Al ‘Ula, Saudi Arabia; Tel Aviv, Israel; the West Bank; Manama, Bahrain; and Cairo, Egypt from January 4-11, 2024.” This list of stops does not even count his initial flight overseas from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, or his return to the United States. You get my point: that’s one hell of a lot of travel over seven days.
We are fortunate to have Biden in office and Blinken working his ass off in an attempt to keep this as localized as possible, but it remains to be seen of course. Let’s watch and see if Iran loses its fkkg mind and invites a response.
If it’s not obvious to anyone the strategic importance of Israel (albeit partially crippled by the corruption of Netanyahu and Putin’s gleeful shitkicking) then you haven’t been paying attention). Our Mediterranean bases long gone, what other nation stood - and stands - fast with democratic interests. October 7 was not only a barbaric attack on innocents it was the opening move in what we’re seeing now. Were left to watch the outcome of this chess game.
Thanks, Lucian, for letting us more clearly see the trees *and* the forest. I remember the rhyming quality of JFK's Boston accent when he said "It's better to jaw, jaw than to war, war." As true today as then.
Why you need experienced folks who have worn the uniform commenting, and, more important, making national policy...a corrupt mob boss in the White House is unthinkable...again.
I have often felt a bitter sorrow at the thought of the German people, which is so estimable in the individual and so wretched in the generality. A comparison of the German people with other peoples arouses a painful feeling, which I try to overcome in every possible way.
---
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
******* Many readers probably know that quotation from A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, introducing Sherlock Holmes to literature.
Are you speaking of the species of man? Because if you are, I agree. Women do not wish to be characterized that way. Well, make Marjorie Taylor Greene an exception!
This is very sad and distressing. You’ve burrowed into what has been a minor-key national news story (Blinken’s ME jaunt) and revealed an apocalyptic future brewing between the continuity cuts. The MSM news is borderline nonsensical without the work that you and very few others do.
The entire region is a clustaphuck due to the entire region's number one identifier, treachery
Can only shake my head when some FP experts and Arab leaders insist fix the Palestinian problem and everything will fall right into place.
It's as if they don't know Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Iraq are iithah failed states or close to it. And Jordan is hanging on by a thread.
It's as if the region luvs the idea a Jewish state is smack dab in their midst.
While Us mil presence in and around the region ticks them off, what pisses them off is the US oversized influence including in certain capitals. Conversely far too many in the US can't frame a regional related sentence without noun verb Iran.
The primary reason the west continues to try to make nice there is oil. Unless and until the west commits and invests in renewables the west is stuck with the situation. Hopefully Biden will mention how the west reliance on fossil fuels indirectly funds all nonsense in the region.
Right now there are few options, none of them good. Have to keep the shipping lanes open even if it takes increased military action to do so.
Along with being unable to "frame a regional related sentence without noun verb Iran" (love that whole sentence!), far too many in the US can't think any further back than 1948 -- and I'm probably being wildly optimistic here. USians have notoriously short memories. Others, including all parties to the current Middle East mess, never, ever forget.
It's economic and religious. The East believes the cornucopia of the West just "Happened" to the West. To us. It's jealousy. Their ignorance is so profound that in any other context, we'd think the entire Levant is ruled and populated by genetically defective morons. Add poverty to a flawed religion that hates EVERYTHING ,and you're going to have big complicated issues. This is a war between ideals and concepts and will probably never go away.It ain't no chicken and egg issue. This is most about religion and little else. Add economic adversity and you get 911's and October 7's.
The demonization right up to dehumanizing all others is one tell of the 3Abrahamic. It needn't be comprised of a majority of believers to take root and spread. And when it spreads into governance with all its authorities and power, it is difficult to dislodge. And similar with economics when the wealth is concentrated by the few giving them economic power of the masses and an oversized say in governing. Point being 3Abramics are terribly flawed because by definition organized religion is not fact or evidence based. Say that being a Turtle Island ~indigenous~ aka as a non-believing merciless indian savage educated by Jesuits and their Sister orders thru grad school+. Jesuits remain the world's greatest educators and that includes on the broad subject of Theology and Philosophy. And on a personal note embrace the spiritual in all organized religions. Emphasis spiritual.
Any place on the Blue Marble remaining rooted and grounded in organized religion leans to the emotive, including the negative ones of hate, ignorance and fear. Lest we forget up until rather recently the jewel. of the so-called Middle East was non-secular Lebanon. Look at it now. Or Afghanistan for that matter. And to a growing degree Bibi's Israel with the same in the US via Trump.
Is easy for fundamentalists in any organized religion to achieve for a host of known reasons especially following some significant downfall including economically.
Have sat across the table over the decades with different mofos that cloak themselves in a religion which is nothing more than an ideology. subject to interpretation due to not being based on reality, truth, facts or evidence. Doesn't matter what continent or region or what ideology. There is no reasoning with them. Nearly everything becomes transactional built on the slippery slope of treachery (dishonesty, dishonor). Said another way they fall into the category of I, I, I, me, me, me not that of their skyguy. Yes, it is a form of the god complex.
Will not dispute your words related to the region. Keep in mind there are other regions t that have a long history of similar nonsense, Ireland-Northern Ireland, the English-Scots, the USA-CSA, India-Pakistan as well as the never ending North and growing parts of Africa v. the remainder of Africa and globally with Shia-Sunni.
A better case can be made organized religion, not money, is the root of all evil.
When it comes to the Houtis I would add one more tactical element. I would start manning oil tankers and container ships with well trained and equipped quick reaction forces for their trip through the Red Sea. Put a dozen or so combat vets with 50 cal, shoulder mounted rocket launchers and anti personnel weaponry and let the Houtis try to take the ships. Our fleet cannot be everywhere at the same time and I am betting the Houtis will start attacking commercial ships furthest away from our Navy.
If the Houtis knew every time they rolled up to a tanker in their rubber boats powered by outboards they were going to get hit by a curtain of fire they might think twice. If they , don't then we will simply have found a new improved way to send some of these pirates to meet Allah.
All this talk about fear of escalation is BS. The Houtis are not a political movement. They are thieves. So let's start treating them that way and put some more heavily armed cops on this beat. Bet the cost would be a fraction of what it is going to cost having these ships travel an extra three or four thousand miles out of their way.
Agree 100%. Like the armed guard, the small (12-14?) contingent of navy men on Liberty ships and tankers in WWII convoys. Of course the enemy at that time was truly formidable, generally German U-boats, against which the armed guard was helpless. Your suggestion would take huge $$$ and much commitment, but the threat today is usually a bunch of armed men in a small boat— easily dealt with by a contingent of well trained marksmen.
Huge dollars compared to what? My bet is you could hire an army of armed and well equipped guards for a fraction of what it is going to cost in extra fuel and delays to the global supply chain. At least someone should run the numbers to see.
Hmmm. Maybe. I’m thinking huge dollars in view of the vast number of commercial vessels that transit Suez and the Red Sea daily. Would be interesting to run the numbers. And it would provide a lot of jobs for men & women who don’t mind long stints at sea.
Yes, there are a lot of ships. Some estimates say anywhere between 30% and 40% of the world's commerce transits this waterway. But, remember it would not be necessary to man every ship; just enough of them in a random pattern to keep the Houtis guessing. Furthermore, duty would only be for a portion of their cruise and crews could rotate from ship to ship as necessary. Finally, if we do not do this it will force a significant increase in the cost of goods and delays in the supply chain. Now that would really be "huge" to a global economy and supply chain increasingly dependent upon "just in time."
All true. A few dead Houthis and boats blown to matchsticks would have a deterrent effect. The important thing would be to arm many ships for a while. Blow a few dozen Houthis to Allah and their 27 virgins, and then randomize it. The main point is, this could be done. Ships are large and slow. Fat targets. The Barbary pirates had a field day in the early 1800s, forcing Jefferson to send ships like USS Constitution and her ilk to the Med. We’ve been there ever since.
Right. As to the people who “hate” Biden, one tack I’ve used is to ask them (in a non-confrontational way) to describe their ideal president. Most people stutter and stammer. They don’t really have an alternative in mind… or they describe some idealized golden Superman who does everything THEY would do. It’s much easier to carp and criticize than to actually be down there, hot and sweaty, in the arena, to mangle a JFK phrase, fighting the lions yourself.
I'm going to try this. Most of the Biden-haters and Biden-scoffers I know are on the left side of the spectrum. They often do an alternative in mind -- AOC comes up fairly often -- so the challenge is to point out that (apart from her age) at this point in her career (1) she would have a hard time getting elected nationwide (this is true of most politicians who've never run in anything bigger than a House district), (2) she hasn't demonstrated the ability to build the sort of coalition necessary to get elected president, and (3) her ability to be effective in the opposition doesn't automatically translate into the ability to get things done. I suspect most people don't look much beyond the president's public face -- the speeches, the press conferences, etc. If they've ever been part of, e.g., an organization or a sports team, they should know there's more to it than that.
Well stated. I love AOC, but all you say is true. It’s a long, long slog to gather the coalition you mention. And this country, with its many warring factions and deep undercurrents of racism, would not elect a woman of color yet. We should have elected a woman in 2016— she would have been superb—but the damnable, perverse device called the electoral college installed Dump instead. I wish Biden were a more dynamic speaker—that matters ALOT in politics—but he’s an old pro, and he gets things done… and he’s not a scammer and a traitor.
Yes, yes, and yes. ;-) I underestimated Biden going into 2016, and I didn't have a firm grasp of what the times -- i.e., recovery from the Trump administration + COVID -- required. Live and learn . . . and if I live to be about 140, maybe I'll know what I'm doing.
I too, underestimated Biden. I incorrectly judged him on the gaffes he had said in the past. I don’t care what age he is. He’s trying his hardest and to me, that is more important than anything else. His goal for America is to retain our democracy and laws. We have to help him.
The Clarence Thomas hearings, to which I paid very close attention, cast a very long shadow for me. Then it dawned on me that (almost) 30 years is a l-o-n-g time. ;-) At that point I started paying more attention to his important but under-acknowledged role in the Obama administration. With the possible exception of Hillary Clinton, very few people have a better grasp on how the legislative and executive branches work and on U.S. foreign policy.
I really don't get it. He's been winning elections for fifty years, he clearly knows how to win. tangeranus fell ass backwards into the job because, let's face it, if HRC was male she would have won easily. I think it won't even be all that close at the end of the day.
Hope to god you’re right. I mean, for Chrissake, HC won popular by 3million. It was only the damned electoral college that put an inept, ignorant, lying and traitorous psychopath in the office. A sitting president is often disliked … people want their perfect Superman instead… but when push comes to shove at the ballot box, they should 🤞🤞let common sense prevail. He won by 7 million in 2020 and should win again.
As a Theodore Roosevelt High School, [Des Moines Iowa] graduate it's almost
impossible not to have run across this quote!
The famous Theodore Roosevelt quote about striving valiantly and daring greatly
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
{{Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership - TR was far ahead of his time on protecting wildlife and the environment. }}
January 18, 2011
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15 Responses to “It Is Not the Critic Who Counts”
Avette Gaiser
March 29, 2020
My favorite quote of all time.
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TERENCE GARVIE
November 22, 2020
this is the sort of speech that stirs the soul and what is lacking in modern day politicians as to-day they now put economics as the element to strive for rather than the body and soul and spirit of the nation,
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Cynthia Dettner
April 13, 2023
Note to Ken Wright-
I know it has been a couple of years but I just ran across your comments here and was moved to tell you how thoughtful and noble they are and that I would like to share them with my senior high school class. Recognizing those that lean in to serve their fellow man harken no greater calling and should be thanked and recognized. Thank you for your service.
A grateful high school teacher and military mom
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Ken Wright
December 5, 2020
When I became a police sergeant, I reviewed this quote regularly. When I became a lieutenant, I committed it to memory and pondered it as I counseled my troops when they made mistakes. I considered that they often had to make split-second decisions, all alone, in the middle of the night, in tense or dangerous situations. When it was clear that he or she had done his or her best, under trying circumstances, I always thanked them for coming to work that day, for being willing to step into the arena, and for being willing to make some decision under pressure even if reproof was ultimately required.
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Jeff Simmons
December 10, 2020
That piece of Roosevelt’s speech at The Sorbonne gives you a precursor of what you’re in for if you decide to step into the arena. It is so true. So, if you’re afraid to make a mistake, get out of the way and let those who aren’t go to work!
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Stephen Marc Bastian
September 6, 2021
32 years Air Force, I can appreciate what he is saying
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Greg
October 24, 2021
One of my favorite quotes and an inspiration for over 20 years since I first heard it.
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Dale Broberg
February 22, 2022
I have a dear friend who has wonderful ideas about everything. She also has the type friends who will find a problem in every solution. I asked her to read this.when time allowed. A copy is now on her wall. Get out her way.
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Laude Hays
May 28, 2022
I’ve heard it said there are two types of people, those on the playing field and those in the grandstands. The grandstanders hold themselves as experts at the same time never having played the game. I think I will stay on the field.
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Gerald A Townsend
November 28, 2022
Bruce Lee critized “dry land swimmers,” martial artists who never actually engaged in sparring….if you want to to fight you have to spar…a similar concept to this quote….don’t just be a Monday morning quarterback….
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Gary P.
March 2, 2023
This is my favorite poem. As a retired Connecticut State Police Sgt. remember and kept this particular poem in my cruiser and my office. These words have meaning.
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Luke
March 9, 2023
I keep this in my wallet and read it everytime someone doubts me or I doubt myself. NONE of us are getting out of this life alive so give things a go, try win lose fail draw learn from it all and remember to smile and laugh at the victories and defeats in life with equal measure.
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Chris Moon
March 21, 2023
In an increasingly bureaucratic world this quote resonates with anyone who has been there and done anything challenging. Great to see the comments from operators who used it to compassionately manage their teams. I’m ex-military and was blown up working for a charity clearing landmines in remote East Africa. Lost two limbs, survived against the odds became ne oof the world’s first amputee runners and when I got back to UK realised the concept of Hindsight Heroes- People who sit on the sidelines and comment on situations where they weren’t present with no knowledge of the facts- they need to read this 😂
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David
March 30, 2023
This strikes at the heartbeat of every American. Some are willing to step into the arena and some aren’t. Garth Brooks has a song called “Standing Outside the Fire” that says life is not tried, it’s just merely survived if you are standing outside the fire. Both are talking about those who are willing.
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Shawn Arnold
April 2, 2023
It is as if Teddy lived in today’s age of social media. I wish more people lived by this saying
Daunting doesn’t begin to describe. Grateful President Biden is in office and Sec. Blinken is charged with the shuttle diplomacy. Remember when that job was held by Rex Tillerson, picked because he had been top dog at Exxon.
That famous phrase, "Speak softly but carry a big stick" I thought was a more recent creation. either during the Kennedy era or by a politician in England, but it was actually first said by Teddy Roosevelt in 1901. "The phrase "speak softly and carry a big stick" became a common expression after U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt first publicly used it in a 1901 speech. There was a bit more to the full statement Roosevelt used in his speech. The complete wording is:
"Speak softly and carry a big stick — you will go far."
The full phrase indicates that success is likely to result when you take a nicer approach even when everyone involved knows that you have a more forceful option at your disposal.
At the time he first used the phrase publicly, Roosevelt referred to it as a West African proverb. However, researchers have not been able to prove that this phrase originated in West Africa or that it had been used anywhere else before President Roosevelt's speech. It is possible, even likely, that the phrase originated with President Roosevelt."
Prolly was West Africa although carrying a stic in Africa is akin to westerners carrying cellphones. Researchers still don't get aboriginal and indigenous don't go around with pencil and paper in hand. yet their respective cultures have been around for 25,000 or more. Proffer: Turtle Island's indigenous book of quotes is smaller than Mao's Red Book.
So, who is winning. Is all this talking and negotiating leading to something productive? With the Houthi, is the sum total of all this firepower unleashed on their bases of operation forcing them to get their heads down, impeding their ability to unleash drone missiles against commercial shipping? Punitive attacks and expeditions against barbarians and bandits go back to time immemorial, before the rise of great civilizations and their empires.
My sense is that for the Houthi, going into combat is treated as a right of passage by their young male members, just the same as getting one's driver's license confers the trappings of adulthood onto American suburban teenagers. If we look at the rites of passage of North America's native aboriginal Indian tribes, we see the same tribal impulse to prepare young men to go to war. As a civilization, we sublimate this impulse to become a "young warrior" into competitive sports; into organized quasi-military institutions like scouting, where young men and boys acquire the accoutrements of what will become military attire once they reach the age of maturity where they can leave home, moving into the care and custody of formal military organizations, colleges and universities, public service organizations, such as the Peace Corps, religious missionary organizations, or other forms of organizations whereby young men are schooled in the duties and rituals of adult life. Young men are restless and adventurous. They are primed to join organizations that will guide them into their maturity and their ultimate acceptance by their elders, if not as citizens-in-training, then to be a part of an organized contingent, to learn how to be adults in the service of their elders. It's all part of the natural order of things. As long as humankind has pursued the elements of tribal existence, this has been a way of life. This is how life skills are passed on from one generation to another, from the shrouded mists of our distant past into the indeterminable future. For the rest of us, the Houthi are simply a well armed, and dangerous scout troop. It is the job of our elders, supported by our young men, to ride herd on these renegades, even if it means lethal consequences for some of them. For them to be ducking and covering amidst the falling rockets and bombs as the known consequence of their decision to join up with the Houthi rebellion. As a practical matter, there may be strong pressures within their society for them to do so; but that's their problem, not ours. For those who wish to remain alive as long as possible, the options they face should include nothing more than kicking soccer balls around a dusty field.
An example of this from where I live -- a small town surrounded by other small towns in MA: the volunteer fire departments. Middle-aged department veterans mentoring younger men, teaching them skills and bringing them into a group whose members depend on each other and often socialize together with or without their families. Being a female with no interest in firefighting, it took me a while to catch on to this and see how important it was in the larger scheme of things.
There's always a right for self defense. But when you have the largest stockpile and most advanced weapons in the world there appears to be a temptation if not compulsion, to overuse them. The Israelis lost much public sympathy by their disproportionate respo se. Now it appears the US has done a smaller version of tbe same thing and the administration is losing public support. When ww need it more than ever to protect democracy at home. At the ris of over simplifying, I side with simply stoppung after responding prortionately. That is always justifiable at least in discussion. But flexing your weaponry muscle just cuz you have big ones never produces a positive result.
As to your first sentence, sometimes it is true as when Trump skipped the wrong weapon on a deserted runway in Sy, same with the reinforced concrete hangars, then struck empty warehouses outside of Damascus. Or to W.'s Shock and Awe opening salvo in Ir.
Yet to date, doesn't apply to US-UK strike on Houthi controlled Yemen. And the strikes were targeted to weapon systems and radar installations, and weapon factories/depots used against international commercial vessels as well as to mil ships.
That water way carries 12% of the world's commerce. The globe is only now finding its footing in the post-COVID era. Delays and disruptions are pebbles in the pond.
Proportionality is nebulous at best allowing both sides to have opposite takes. US-UkK didn't target not strike any civ infrastructure and limited to the strikes to targets interfering with the freedom of the seas. Unlike the subjective nature of proportionality the freedom of the seas is objective. Houthis have already turned one cargo vessel they seized into a tourist attraction as well as made vids for social media agitprop. Likely holding the crew for ransom. While that doesn't give license to the US to do equally stoopid things one must recognize the Houthis play by their own rules, not ours. The waterway has a history of sinking vessels to block transit as well as laying mines. Degrading their capabilities is vital to keeping the waters safe.
Israel is not the US by any metric. How it prosecutes a war is their choice. What is heavy handed to the US or the globe writ large is not heavy handed to them. Israel is bordered by hostiles and more exist in the region. That translates into the mindset of keeping their casualties of regular and reservist IDF to the lowest number possible as well as prosecuting the war as fast as possible. Any other nation under the same/similar conditions and circumstances would likely do the same or similar.
My only beef with them is withholding and/or slowing down aid while using water, food, and medicine as leverage. Is stoopid. That's all on Bibi and his utra-conservative right wing government, not on the Israeli people nor the IDF. Empty bellies and parched throats in need for medicines will respond favorably to aid and unfavorably to little to none. THe IDF knows that as do the majority of Israeli civs.
I note proleptically that I agree with almost NOTHING routinely published on The Daily Caller, my politics are solidly on the democratic Left - but this op-ed exposes the fallacies running rampant about the "proportionality issue," although it is indeed a crucial issue, not always easy to figure out when legal self-defense and defense of others under the law of armed conflict goes too far. - EXCERPT:
Shoshana Bryen Contributor October 28, 2023 8:59 AM ET
As the Israeli incursion into Gaza continues, increased attention has been focused on the notion of “proportionality” in both the number of casualties on each side and the sophistication of weapons each side brings to bear. Mostly, pundits mean that Israel is killing too many Palestinians. An understanding of proportionality in the laws of war, however, has been missing.
Even friends of Israel get it wrong – one irate speaker on British television said, “Do you want proportionality? Should Israel seek out young women in Gaza, rape, torture, and kill them? Should Israel find babies and murder them in front of their parents – or murder parents in front of their children? Should Israel indiscriminately shell Palestinian villages?”
An Israeli journalist, in a prior response to Hamas missiles, went so far as to call Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system “unsportsmanlike.” He wondered what FIFA would say “if Germany, with its superior economy and industry, were to replace Manuel Neuer with a bionic goalkeeper… capable of calculating where each Argentine ball will come from, the exact position to stand in, and amount of force needed to block it… On the modern battlefield (Israel) is a bionic Germany.” (RELATED: JD FOSTER: The Three Big Questions Israel Must Ask Before The Ground Invasion)
How unsportsmanlike!
Then there is the “yes, but…” response. “Yes” Hamas started it; “Yes,” Hamas tortured and massacred Israeli civilians; “Yes” Hamas puts military infrastructure in civilian neighborhoods; “Yes” Israel is entitled to self-defense; “Yes” the Israelis warn Palestinians. “But” so many more Palestinians have been killed than Israelis.
Isn’t that the definition of “disproportionate?” No. It isn’t.
Proportionality in international law is not about equality of death or civilian suffering, or even about firepower returned being equal in sophistication or lethality to firepower received. Proportionality weighs the military necessity of an action against the suffering that the action might cause to enemy civilians in the vicinity. A review of expert opinion – none of which was written in relation to Israel – helps to clarify. And each should be read in relation to Hamas crimes against Israeli civilians.
Prof. Horst Fischer, Academic Director of the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany, and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, wrote in The Crimes of War Project: {The article continues with relevant citations}
We are fortunate to have Biden in office and Blinken working his ass off in an attempt to keep this as localized as possible, but it remains to be seen of course. Let’s watch and see if Iran loses its fkkg mind and invites a response.
If it’s not obvious to anyone the strategic importance of Israel (albeit partially crippled by the corruption of Netanyahu and Putin’s gleeful shitkicking) then you haven’t been paying attention). Our Mediterranean bases long gone, what other nation stood - and stands - fast with democratic interests. October 7 was not only a barbaric attack on innocents it was the opening move in what we’re seeing now. Were left to watch the outcome of this chess game.
Brilliant. View this in a great game context. If we could decarbonize we wouldn’t be so reliant on Middle East.
Well, yes, hasn’t it always been? I’ve thought so. But many layers, multiple players. Maybe Lucien would opine on that as one who has studied war.
I am not expert - only a reader, an observer.
History tells us straight out. Trade will not be disrupted without a response. The frosting is the religious zealotry that camouflages the intent.
Thanks, Lucian, for letting us more clearly see the trees *and* the forest. I remember the rhyming quality of JFK's Boston accent when he said "It's better to jaw, jaw than to war, war." As true today as then.
JFK quoting Winston Churchill, great leaders thinking alike.
"In the war between bombs and words, bombs are winning."
That woulda been my guess, too.
I do, however, love to read you when the soldier part of you takes over because it is so far from my own way of thinking.
Why you need experienced folks who have worn the uniform commenting, and, more important, making national policy...a corrupt mob boss in the White House is unthinkable...again.
We as a species seem determined to wipe ourselves out.
Yep
I have often felt a bitter sorrow at the thought of the German people, which is so estimable in the individual and so wretched in the generality. A comparison of the German people with other peoples arouses a painful feeling, which I try to overcome in every possible way.
---
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
******* Many readers probably know that quotation from A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, introducing Sherlock Holmes to literature.
Are you speaking of the species of man? Because if you are, I agree. Women do not wish to be characterized that way. Well, make Marjorie Taylor Greene an exception!
This is very sad and distressing. You’ve burrowed into what has been a minor-key national news story (Blinken’s ME jaunt) and revealed an apocalyptic future brewing between the continuity cuts. The MSM news is borderline nonsensical without the work that you and very few others do.
Great piece.
The entire region is a clustaphuck due to the entire region's number one identifier, treachery
Can only shake my head when some FP experts and Arab leaders insist fix the Palestinian problem and everything will fall right into place.
It's as if they don't know Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Iraq are iithah failed states or close to it. And Jordan is hanging on by a thread.
It's as if the region luvs the idea a Jewish state is smack dab in their midst.
While Us mil presence in and around the region ticks them off, what pisses them off is the US oversized influence including in certain capitals. Conversely far too many in the US can't frame a regional related sentence without noun verb Iran.
The primary reason the west continues to try to make nice there is oil. Unless and until the west commits and invests in renewables the west is stuck with the situation. Hopefully Biden will mention how the west reliance on fossil fuels indirectly funds all nonsense in the region.
Right now there are few options, none of them good. Have to keep the shipping lanes open even if it takes increased military action to do so.
Along with being unable to "frame a regional related sentence without noun verb Iran" (love that whole sentence!), far too many in the US can't think any further back than 1948 -- and I'm probably being wildly optimistic here. USians have notoriously short memories. Others, including all parties to the current Middle East mess, never, ever forget.
Agree. Short memories are antithetical to democracy while being the springboard to autocracy.
Another great (and useful!) image!
It's economic and religious. The East believes the cornucopia of the West just "Happened" to the West. To us. It's jealousy. Their ignorance is so profound that in any other context, we'd think the entire Levant is ruled and populated by genetically defective morons. Add poverty to a flawed religion that hates EVERYTHING ,and you're going to have big complicated issues. This is a war between ideals and concepts and will probably never go away.It ain't no chicken and egg issue. This is most about religion and little else. Add economic adversity and you get 911's and October 7's.
The demonization right up to dehumanizing all others is one tell of the 3Abrahamic. It needn't be comprised of a majority of believers to take root and spread. And when it spreads into governance with all its authorities and power, it is difficult to dislodge. And similar with economics when the wealth is concentrated by the few giving them economic power of the masses and an oversized say in governing. Point being 3Abramics are terribly flawed because by definition organized religion is not fact or evidence based. Say that being a Turtle Island ~indigenous~ aka as a non-believing merciless indian savage educated by Jesuits and their Sister orders thru grad school+. Jesuits remain the world's greatest educators and that includes on the broad subject of Theology and Philosophy. And on a personal note embrace the spiritual in all organized religions. Emphasis spiritual.
Any place on the Blue Marble remaining rooted and grounded in organized religion leans to the emotive, including the negative ones of hate, ignorance and fear. Lest we forget up until rather recently the jewel. of the so-called Middle East was non-secular Lebanon. Look at it now. Or Afghanistan for that matter. And to a growing degree Bibi's Israel with the same in the US via Trump.
Is easy for fundamentalists in any organized religion to achieve for a host of known reasons especially following some significant downfall including economically.
Have sat across the table over the decades with different mofos that cloak themselves in a religion which is nothing more than an ideology. subject to interpretation due to not being based on reality, truth, facts or evidence. Doesn't matter what continent or region or what ideology. There is no reasoning with them. Nearly everything becomes transactional built on the slippery slope of treachery (dishonesty, dishonor). Said another way they fall into the category of I, I, I, me, me, me not that of their skyguy. Yes, it is a form of the god complex.
Will not dispute your words related to the region. Keep in mind there are other regions t that have a long history of similar nonsense, Ireland-Northern Ireland, the English-Scots, the USA-CSA, India-Pakistan as well as the never ending North and growing parts of Africa v. the remainder of Africa and globally with Shia-Sunni.
A better case can be made organized religion, not money, is the root of all evil.
When it comes to the Houtis I would add one more tactical element. I would start manning oil tankers and container ships with well trained and equipped quick reaction forces for their trip through the Red Sea. Put a dozen or so combat vets with 50 cal, shoulder mounted rocket launchers and anti personnel weaponry and let the Houtis try to take the ships. Our fleet cannot be everywhere at the same time and I am betting the Houtis will start attacking commercial ships furthest away from our Navy.
If the Houtis knew every time they rolled up to a tanker in their rubber boats powered by outboards they were going to get hit by a curtain of fire they might think twice. If they , don't then we will simply have found a new improved way to send some of these pirates to meet Allah.
All this talk about fear of escalation is BS. The Houtis are not a political movement. They are thieves. So let's start treating them that way and put some more heavily armed cops on this beat. Bet the cost would be a fraction of what it is going to cost having these ships travel an extra three or four thousand miles out of their way.
Always, always follow the money. This (the Houthis attacks) is now costing the big guys some bucks. Whoops! The shit is about to rain down on them.
Agree 100%. Like the armed guard, the small (12-14?) contingent of navy men on Liberty ships and tankers in WWII convoys. Of course the enemy at that time was truly formidable, generally German U-boats, against which the armed guard was helpless. Your suggestion would take huge $$$ and much commitment, but the threat today is usually a bunch of armed men in a small boat— easily dealt with by a contingent of well trained marksmen.
Huge dollars compared to what? My bet is you could hire an army of armed and well equipped guards for a fraction of what it is going to cost in extra fuel and delays to the global supply chain. At least someone should run the numbers to see.
Hmmm. Maybe. I’m thinking huge dollars in view of the vast number of commercial vessels that transit Suez and the Red Sea daily. Would be interesting to run the numbers. And it would provide a lot of jobs for men & women who don’t mind long stints at sea.
Yes, there are a lot of ships. Some estimates say anywhere between 30% and 40% of the world's commerce transits this waterway. But, remember it would not be necessary to man every ship; just enough of them in a random pattern to keep the Houtis guessing. Furthermore, duty would only be for a portion of their cruise and crews could rotate from ship to ship as necessary. Finally, if we do not do this it will force a significant increase in the cost of goods and delays in the supply chain. Now that would really be "huge" to a global economy and supply chain increasingly dependent upon "just in time."
All true. A few dead Houthis and boats blown to matchsticks would have a deterrent effect. The important thing would be to arm many ships for a while. Blow a few dozen Houthis to Allah and their 27 virgins, and then randomize it. The main point is, this could be done. Ships are large and slow. Fat targets. The Barbary pirates had a field day in the early 1800s, forcing Jefferson to send ships like USS Constitution and her ilk to the Med. We’ve been there ever since.
Brilliant
All Biden can do is try. I don't know what else to say...
Right. As to the people who “hate” Biden, one tack I’ve used is to ask them (in a non-confrontational way) to describe their ideal president. Most people stutter and stammer. They don’t really have an alternative in mind… or they describe some idealized golden Superman who does everything THEY would do. It’s much easier to carp and criticize than to actually be down there, hot and sweaty, in the arena, to mangle a JFK phrase, fighting the lions yourself.
I'm going to try this. Most of the Biden-haters and Biden-scoffers I know are on the left side of the spectrum. They often do an alternative in mind -- AOC comes up fairly often -- so the challenge is to point out that (apart from her age) at this point in her career (1) she would have a hard time getting elected nationwide (this is true of most politicians who've never run in anything bigger than a House district), (2) she hasn't demonstrated the ability to build the sort of coalition necessary to get elected president, and (3) her ability to be effective in the opposition doesn't automatically translate into the ability to get things done. I suspect most people don't look much beyond the president's public face -- the speeches, the press conferences, etc. If they've ever been part of, e.g., an organization or a sports team, they should know there's more to it than that.
Well stated. I love AOC, but all you say is true. It’s a long, long slog to gather the coalition you mention. And this country, with its many warring factions and deep undercurrents of racism, would not elect a woman of color yet. We should have elected a woman in 2016— she would have been superb—but the damnable, perverse device called the electoral college installed Dump instead. I wish Biden were a more dynamic speaker—that matters ALOT in politics—but he’s an old pro, and he gets things done… and he’s not a scammer and a traitor.
Yes, yes, and yes. ;-) I underestimated Biden going into 2016, and I didn't have a firm grasp of what the times -- i.e., recovery from the Trump administration + COVID -- required. Live and learn . . . and if I live to be about 140, maybe I'll know what I'm doing.
I too, underestimated Biden. I incorrectly judged him on the gaffes he had said in the past. I don’t care what age he is. He’s trying his hardest and to me, that is more important than anything else. His goal for America is to retain our democracy and laws. We have to help him.
The Clarence Thomas hearings, to which I paid very close attention, cast a very long shadow for me. Then it dawned on me that (almost) 30 years is a l-o-n-g time. ;-) At that point I started paying more attention to his important but under-acknowledged role in the Obama administration. With the possible exception of Hillary Clinton, very few people have a better grasp on how the legislative and executive branches work and on U.S. foreign policy.
I really don't get it. He's been winning elections for fifty years, he clearly knows how to win. tangeranus fell ass backwards into the job because, let's face it, if HRC was male she would have won easily. I think it won't even be all that close at the end of the day.
Hope to god you’re right. I mean, for Chrissake, HC won popular by 3million. It was only the damned electoral college that put an inept, ignorant, lying and traitorous psychopath in the office. A sitting president is often disliked … people want their perfect Superman instead… but when push comes to shove at the ballot box, they should 🤞🤞let common sense prevail. He won by 7 million in 2020 and should win again.
As a Theodore Roosevelt High School, [Des Moines Iowa] graduate it's almost
impossible not to have run across this quote!
The famous Theodore Roosevelt quote about striving valiantly and daring greatly
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
—Theodore Roosevelt
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
https://www.trcp.org/2011/01/18/it-is-not-the-critic-who-counts/
{{Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership - TR was far ahead of his time on protecting wildlife and the environment. }}
January 18, 2011
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15 Responses to “It Is Not the Critic Who Counts”
Avette Gaiser
March 29, 2020
My favorite quote of all time.
Reply
TERENCE GARVIE
November 22, 2020
this is the sort of speech that stirs the soul and what is lacking in modern day politicians as to-day they now put economics as the element to strive for rather than the body and soul and spirit of the nation,
Reply
Cynthia Dettner
April 13, 2023
Note to Ken Wright-
I know it has been a couple of years but I just ran across your comments here and was moved to tell you how thoughtful and noble they are and that I would like to share them with my senior high school class. Recognizing those that lean in to serve their fellow man harken no greater calling and should be thanked and recognized. Thank you for your service.
A grateful high school teacher and military mom
Reply
Ken Wright
December 5, 2020
When I became a police sergeant, I reviewed this quote regularly. When I became a lieutenant, I committed it to memory and pondered it as I counseled my troops when they made mistakes. I considered that they often had to make split-second decisions, all alone, in the middle of the night, in tense or dangerous situations. When it was clear that he or she had done his or her best, under trying circumstances, I always thanked them for coming to work that day, for being willing to step into the arena, and for being willing to make some decision under pressure even if reproof was ultimately required.
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Jeff Simmons
December 10, 2020
That piece of Roosevelt’s speech at The Sorbonne gives you a precursor of what you’re in for if you decide to step into the arena. It is so true. So, if you’re afraid to make a mistake, get out of the way and let those who aren’t go to work!
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Stephen Marc Bastian
September 6, 2021
32 years Air Force, I can appreciate what he is saying
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Greg
October 24, 2021
One of my favorite quotes and an inspiration for over 20 years since I first heard it.
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Dale Broberg
February 22, 2022
I have a dear friend who has wonderful ideas about everything. She also has the type friends who will find a problem in every solution. I asked her to read this.when time allowed. A copy is now on her wall. Get out her way.
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Laude Hays
May 28, 2022
I’ve heard it said there are two types of people, those on the playing field and those in the grandstands. The grandstanders hold themselves as experts at the same time never having played the game. I think I will stay on the field.
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Gerald A Townsend
November 28, 2022
Bruce Lee critized “dry land swimmers,” martial artists who never actually engaged in sparring….if you want to to fight you have to spar…a similar concept to this quote….don’t just be a Monday morning quarterback….
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Gary P.
March 2, 2023
This is my favorite poem. As a retired Connecticut State Police Sgt. remember and kept this particular poem in my cruiser and my office. These words have meaning.
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Luke
March 9, 2023
I keep this in my wallet and read it everytime someone doubts me or I doubt myself. NONE of us are getting out of this life alive so give things a go, try win lose fail draw learn from it all and remember to smile and laugh at the victories and defeats in life with equal measure.
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Chris Moon
March 21, 2023
In an increasingly bureaucratic world this quote resonates with anyone who has been there and done anything challenging. Great to see the comments from operators who used it to compassionately manage their teams. I’m ex-military and was blown up working for a charity clearing landmines in remote East Africa. Lost two limbs, survived against the odds became ne oof the world’s first amputee runners and when I got back to UK realised the concept of Hindsight Heroes- People who sit on the sidelines and comment on situations where they weren’t present with no knowledge of the facts- they need to read this 😂
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David
March 30, 2023
This strikes at the heartbeat of every American. Some are willing to step into the arena and some aren’t. Garth Brooks has a song called “Standing Outside the Fire” that says life is not tried, it’s just merely survived if you are standing outside the fire. Both are talking about those who are willing.
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Shawn Arnold
April 2, 2023
It is as if Teddy lived in today’s age of social media. I wish more people lived by this saying
Reply
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1. It Is Not the Critic Who Counts
Daunting doesn’t begin to describe. Grateful President Biden is in office and Sec. Blinken is charged with the shuttle diplomacy. Remember when that job was held by Rex Tillerson, picked because he had been top dog at Exxon.
Who famously said that Drumpf was as dumb as a box of rocks!
He also called him “lazy as hell,” but more famously said that Trump was a”f***ing moron.”
Anybody that was near him that was anywhere’s near sane, knew he is a fucking moron.
Bombs have lobbyists. Words don’t
That famous phrase, "Speak softly but carry a big stick" I thought was a more recent creation. either during the Kennedy era or by a politician in England, but it was actually first said by Teddy Roosevelt in 1901. "The phrase "speak softly and carry a big stick" became a common expression after U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt first publicly used it in a 1901 speech. There was a bit more to the full statement Roosevelt used in his speech. The complete wording is:
"Speak softly and carry a big stick — you will go far."
The full phrase indicates that success is likely to result when you take a nicer approach even when everyone involved knows that you have a more forceful option at your disposal.
At the time he first used the phrase publicly, Roosevelt referred to it as a West African proverb. However, researchers have not been able to prove that this phrase originated in West Africa or that it had been used anywhere else before President Roosevelt's speech. It is possible, even likely, that the phrase originated with President Roosevelt."
Prolly was West Africa although carrying a stic in Africa is akin to westerners carrying cellphones. Researchers still don't get aboriginal and indigenous don't go around with pencil and paper in hand. yet their respective cultures have been around for 25,000 or more. Proffer: Turtle Island's indigenous book of quotes is smaller than Mao's Red Book.
And my doctor wonders why I drink.
Read the recent column on the positive effects of no booze, the afib one.
So, who is winning. Is all this talking and negotiating leading to something productive? With the Houthi, is the sum total of all this firepower unleashed on their bases of operation forcing them to get their heads down, impeding their ability to unleash drone missiles against commercial shipping? Punitive attacks and expeditions against barbarians and bandits go back to time immemorial, before the rise of great civilizations and their empires.
My sense is that for the Houthi, going into combat is treated as a right of passage by their young male members, just the same as getting one's driver's license confers the trappings of adulthood onto American suburban teenagers. If we look at the rites of passage of North America's native aboriginal Indian tribes, we see the same tribal impulse to prepare young men to go to war. As a civilization, we sublimate this impulse to become a "young warrior" into competitive sports; into organized quasi-military institutions like scouting, where young men and boys acquire the accoutrements of what will become military attire once they reach the age of maturity where they can leave home, moving into the care and custody of formal military organizations, colleges and universities, public service organizations, such as the Peace Corps, religious missionary organizations, or other forms of organizations whereby young men are schooled in the duties and rituals of adult life. Young men are restless and adventurous. They are primed to join organizations that will guide them into their maturity and their ultimate acceptance by their elders, if not as citizens-in-training, then to be a part of an organized contingent, to learn how to be adults in the service of their elders. It's all part of the natural order of things. As long as humankind has pursued the elements of tribal existence, this has been a way of life. This is how life skills are passed on from one generation to another, from the shrouded mists of our distant past into the indeterminable future. For the rest of us, the Houthi are simply a well armed, and dangerous scout troop. It is the job of our elders, supported by our young men, to ride herd on these renegades, even if it means lethal consequences for some of them. For them to be ducking and covering amidst the falling rockets and bombs as the known consequence of their decision to join up with the Houthi rebellion. As a practical matter, there may be strong pressures within their society for them to do so; but that's their problem, not ours. For those who wish to remain alive as long as possible, the options they face should include nothing more than kicking soccer balls around a dusty field.
An example of this from where I live -- a small town surrounded by other small towns in MA: the volunteer fire departments. Middle-aged department veterans mentoring younger men, teaching them skills and bringing them into a group whose members depend on each other and often socialize together with or without their families. Being a female with no interest in firefighting, it took me a while to catch on to this and see how important it was in the larger scheme of things.
There's always a right for self defense. But when you have the largest stockpile and most advanced weapons in the world there appears to be a temptation if not compulsion, to overuse them. The Israelis lost much public sympathy by their disproportionate respo se. Now it appears the US has done a smaller version of tbe same thing and the administration is losing public support. When ww need it more than ever to protect democracy at home. At the ris of over simplifying, I side with simply stoppung after responding prortionately. That is always justifiable at least in discussion. But flexing your weaponry muscle just cuz you have big ones never produces a positive result.
As to your first sentence, sometimes it is true as when Trump skipped the wrong weapon on a deserted runway in Sy, same with the reinforced concrete hangars, then struck empty warehouses outside of Damascus. Or to W.'s Shock and Awe opening salvo in Ir.
Yet to date, doesn't apply to US-UK strike on Houthi controlled Yemen. And the strikes were targeted to weapon systems and radar installations, and weapon factories/depots used against international commercial vessels as well as to mil ships.
That water way carries 12% of the world's commerce. The globe is only now finding its footing in the post-COVID era. Delays and disruptions are pebbles in the pond.
Proportionality is nebulous at best allowing both sides to have opposite takes. US-UkK didn't target not strike any civ infrastructure and limited to the strikes to targets interfering with the freedom of the seas. Unlike the subjective nature of proportionality the freedom of the seas is objective. Houthis have already turned one cargo vessel they seized into a tourist attraction as well as made vids for social media agitprop. Likely holding the crew for ransom. While that doesn't give license to the US to do equally stoopid things one must recognize the Houthis play by their own rules, not ours. The waterway has a history of sinking vessels to block transit as well as laying mines. Degrading their capabilities is vital to keeping the waters safe.
Israel is not the US by any metric. How it prosecutes a war is their choice. What is heavy handed to the US or the globe writ large is not heavy handed to them. Israel is bordered by hostiles and more exist in the region. That translates into the mindset of keeping their casualties of regular and reservist IDF to the lowest number possible as well as prosecuting the war as fast as possible. Any other nation under the same/similar conditions and circumstances would likely do the same or similar.
My only beef with them is withholding and/or slowing down aid while using water, food, and medicine as leverage. Is stoopid. That's all on Bibi and his utra-conservative right wing government, not on the Israeli people nor the IDF. Empty bellies and parched throats in need for medicines will respond favorably to aid and unfavorably to little to none. THe IDF knows that as do the majority of Israeli civs.
https://dailycaller.com/2023/10/28/opinion-dont-lecture-israel-about-proportionality-shoshana-bryen/
I note proleptically that I agree with almost NOTHING routinely published on The Daily Caller, my politics are solidly on the democratic Left - but this op-ed exposes the fallacies running rampant about the "proportionality issue," although it is indeed a crucial issue, not always easy to figure out when legal self-defense and defense of others under the law of armed conflict goes too far. - EXCERPT:
Shoshana Bryen Contributor October 28, 2023 8:59 AM ET
As the Israeli incursion into Gaza continues, increased attention has been focused on the notion of “proportionality” in both the number of casualties on each side and the sophistication of weapons each side brings to bear. Mostly, pundits mean that Israel is killing too many Palestinians. An understanding of proportionality in the laws of war, however, has been missing.
Even friends of Israel get it wrong – one irate speaker on British television said, “Do you want proportionality? Should Israel seek out young women in Gaza, rape, torture, and kill them? Should Israel find babies and murder them in front of their parents – or murder parents in front of their children? Should Israel indiscriminately shell Palestinian villages?”
An Israeli journalist, in a prior response to Hamas missiles, went so far as to call Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system “unsportsmanlike.” He wondered what FIFA would say “if Germany, with its superior economy and industry, were to replace Manuel Neuer with a bionic goalkeeper… capable of calculating where each Argentine ball will come from, the exact position to stand in, and amount of force needed to block it… On the modern battlefield (Israel) is a bionic Germany.” (RELATED: JD FOSTER: The Three Big Questions Israel Must Ask Before The Ground Invasion)
How unsportsmanlike!
Then there is the “yes, but…” response. “Yes” Hamas started it; “Yes,” Hamas tortured and massacred Israeli civilians; “Yes” Hamas puts military infrastructure in civilian neighborhoods; “Yes” Israel is entitled to self-defense; “Yes” the Israelis warn Palestinians. “But” so many more Palestinians have been killed than Israelis.
Isn’t that the definition of “disproportionate?” No. It isn’t.
Proportionality in international law is not about equality of death or civilian suffering, or even about firepower returned being equal in sophistication or lethality to firepower received. Proportionality weighs the military necessity of an action against the suffering that the action might cause to enemy civilians in the vicinity. A review of expert opinion – none of which was written in relation to Israel – helps to clarify. And each should be read in relation to Hamas crimes against Israeli civilians.
Prof. Horst Fischer, Academic Director of the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany, and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, wrote in The Crimes of War Project: {The article continues with relevant citations}
It's all Drumpf's fault.