Proportionate Response

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The concept of the proportionate response has assumed prominence in discussions and debates about the conflict between Israel and the Islamists. There is a clear acknowledgment that Israel is right to react to such acts of war as having missiles lobbed into her cities and the kidnapping of her citizens and soldiers. However, it is decried that there are surely limits, and that Israel has been easily surpassing those limits, as Lebanese casualty rates far outstrip those for the Israelis.

I believe that all reasonable people can agree that proportionate responses are at the heart of what we mean by justice. The disagreement lies in what we are comparing. I do not think that the ideal we should be seeking is a more or less even trade-off between casualties.

( cut for those uninterested in my Mideast views )

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Proportionate Response

♠
The concept of the proportionate response has assumed prominence in discussions and debates about the conflict between Israel and the Islamists. There is a clear acknowledgment that Israel is right to react to such acts of war as having missiles lobbed into her cities and the kidnapping of her citizens and soldiers. However, it is decried that there are surely limits, and that Israel has been easily surpassing those limits, as Lebanese casualty rates far outstrip those for the Israelis.

I believe that all reasonable people can agree that proportionate responses are at the heart of what we mean by justice. The disagreement lies in what we are comparing. I do not think that the ideal we should be seeking is a more or less even trade-off between casualties.

( cut for those uninterested in my Mideast views )

xXx

The Iran Factor

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“For the Islamic fundamentalists, democratic reform is like toilet paper... You use it once and then you throw it away.”

-- Jordanian intelligence official

This isn’t a case of 20-20 hindsight. It was clear from the beginning that the United States didn’t have remotely enough troops to carry out the crazies’ agenda [the neocons'] — and Mr. Bush never asked for a bigger army.

As I wrote back in January 2003, this meant that the “Bush doctrine” of preventive war was, in practice, a plan to “talk trash and carry a small stick.” It was obvious even then that the administration was preparing to invade Iraq not because it posed a real threat, but because it looked like a soft target.

-- Paul Krugman

I couldn't let these two quotes go by. Although they both express a skepticism of our mission in the Middle East, they come at it from a different angle.

Krugman, of course, is more straightforward in his denunciation of our foreign policy in its entirety. His point about not committing the resources and asking Americans to pay the costs for the rather grand strategic conception of democratizing the Muslim Middle East is well taken. We probably have been trying to do it on the cheap, hoping that it might be enough to try to support moderate actors. The real cost for such a policy, instead of subsidizing SUVs and cutting taxes, may have been a draft as well as tightening our belts at home. Who knows what the cost might have been for just staying home and trying to lead by example and moral suasion.

The first quote comes from a Ted Koppel piece, which expresses the dread that our efforts have redounded mostly to the benefit of Iran, and that if we were to bail out, that would only consolidate those benefits, leaving the volatile and radicalized Iran as the power in the region. The idea is that we need to strengthen our resolve in Iraq, but I will include the Koppel piece and let it speak for itself.

( Koppel column )

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The Iran Factor

♠
“For the Islamic fundamentalists, democratic reform is like toilet paper... You use it once and then you throw it away.”

-- Jordanian intelligence official

This isn’t a case of 20-20 hindsight. It was clear from the beginning that the United States didn’t have remotely enough troops to carry out the crazies’ agenda [the neocons'] — and Mr. Bush never asked for a bigger army.

As I wrote back in January 2003, this meant that the “Bush doctrine” of preventive war was, in practice, a plan to “talk trash and carry a small stick.” It was obvious even then that the administration was preparing to invade Iraq not because it posed a real threat, but because it looked like a soft target.

-- Paul Krugman

I couldn't let these two quotes go by. Although they both express a skepticism of our mission in the Middle East, they come at it from a different angle.

Krugman, of course, is more straightforward in his denunciation of our foreign policy in its entirety. His point about not committing the resources and asking Americans to pay the costs for the rather grand strategic conception of democratizing the Muslim Middle East is well taken. We probably have been trying to do it on the cheap, hoping that it might be enough to try to support moderate actors. The real cost for such a policy, instead of subsidizing SUVs and cutting taxes, may have been a draft as well as tightening our belts at home. Who knows what the cost might have been for just staying home and trying to lead by example and moral suasion.

The first quote comes from a Ted Koppel piece, which expresses the dread that our efforts have redounded mostly to the benefit of Iran, and that if we were to bail out, that would only consolidate those benefits, leaving the volatile and radicalized Iran as the power in the region. The idea is that we need to strengthen our resolve in Iraq, but I will include the Koppel piece and let it speak for itself.

( Koppel column )

xXx