Principled Pragmatism
Why your bleeding hearts are destroying us.
It comes with the territory that once you start publishing your views, people are going to disagree with you. This is called healthy discourse, and I am all for it. Unless someone becomes abusive, or its clear that they don’t have the ability to understand reason, then I’m up for the discussion.
What I have noticed however is time and time again, rather than having a factual debate, the back and forth ends up in the same place. Reason versus emotion.
Below is a note that I posted a few days ago. Maybe I am stupid, but to me my position is pretty clear. Nobody wants to see dead children, nobody. In fact, my post is clearly stating that the way to peace for both Israel and the ‘Palestinians’ is for Israel to decisively win, and Hamas to surrender. Then the rebuilding can begin, without the corrupt, evil Islamist overlords who have oppressed the people of Gaza for decades.
I’m not going to list the many wars that have taken place, without worldwide condemnation I might add, where hundreds of thousands and often millions of people died. It’s called War. Research it, read about it. Learn some history.
And unfortunately it’s the people who suffer when genocidal evil men, or groups of men, rule with violence and brutality and become billionaires by sucking dry the lives of those they are meant to protect.
By the way Maurice, I am one hundred percent comfortable with my perspective. But thanks for your concern. Because I understand the facts of this conflict. Hamas declared war on Israel on October 7. Remember that “horrific display of barbarism” that the peace loving Palestinian men live-streamed from their phones and Go Pros?Not Hamas, the Palestinians, the corrupt UN or the ICJ, you, I, or anyone else get to dictate to Israel how they respond.
"by fighting wars, people have created larger, more organized societies that have reduced the risk that their members will die violently." — Ian Morris1
The horrible images of women and children suffering are irrelevant to the core aspects and existential importance of this conflict. If you are focussing on them — and I understand that they are heart wrenching — you are being distracted. The facts remain that even on Hamas’ revised death toll numbers, the civilian to combatant casualty rate is extremely low, if not the lowest in modern combat. But that is not even the point. The only relevance of that statement is that Israel are expected to behave and retaliate, by public opinion standards, beyond reproach.
But even if the death toll numbers were higher, it’s still not genocide, and it’s still not Israel’s responsibility. No amount of dead children change that fact. If you are unable to understand that truth, your emotions have overtaken your ability to think critically.
Plato described emotion and reason as two horses pulling us in opposite directions. It is easy for emotions to take over situations because they feel so powerful. It is easy to allow your body to get wrapped up in emotion and for those strong feelings to take over from logic and reason. But we must balance our emotional response with reason and truth.
Wars cannot be won on emotion. Countries cannot be managed on emotion. Evil ideologies need to be destroyed, strategically, militarily and conclusively. We cannot pause, or pull back for fear of innocent civilians becoming collateral damage. The future trajectory of civilisation depends on it.
If Israel don’t WIN this war, our children and grandchildren will pay the price. Mark my words.
“The horror of war is a reality I have experienced firsthand. And yet an analyst must never give in to his or her emotions. He or she must view history with a heart of ice to find patterns that others miss.” — Robert Kaplan2
We need to accept that we live in a world that is divided. We are at a crossroads in civilisation, with Israel battling a war much larger than most people realise. We have a choice of how we want our future world to look. If you want your children to inherit a world that stands for freedom, democracy, equal rights, peace, innovation and tolerance, then you should stand with Israel. If you want your children to grow up in a world that inherits corruption, theocracy, violence, child marriage, dictatorship, subjugation of women, abuse of women, religious ideology over law, brutality, abductions, suicide bombers and terrorist attacks — all because you can’t stand the sight of a social media image of an injured child — then keep supporting Israel’s enemies.
It really is as simple as that.
War is destructive, expensive and reaps a huge human cost. Hamas understood this, make no mistake. They understood the full implications of the brutal slaughter they took part in against unarmed Israeli civilians on October 7. The knew that their would be serious repercussions — it was part of their plan. They understood that Israel had no option but to respond, with force, and that embedding themselves within civilian infrastructure would result in civilian deaths. Your moral outrage was part of their strategy. Well done for playing right into the terrorists hands!
No country in the world should be expected to accept what happened in Israel on October 7. Israel’s response should always have been one of absolute force and deterrence — even children understand consequences.
Countries go to war when the security and freedom of a nation is at risk. War is about neutralising a threat, in Israels case, an existential one. When you are advocating for Israel to pull back, ceasefire, stop retaliating, what you are actually campaigning for is the destruction of Israel. Because that is their enemies goal — Israels eradication.
https://cove.army.gov.au/bio/ian-morris
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stratfor/2014/10/06/why-war-is-good/
Well said. So clear and true. With you all the way.
As the whole construct of palestine and palestinians is a falsehood it should fall to the arab states to accept the refugees and stop the killing.