War is Not Law Enforcement

[rangerrebew]

April 29, 2024
War is Not Law Enforcement
By Civis Americanus

The Hamas apologists who now infest Ivy League and other campuses either do not know, or willfully choose to ignore, the fact that war is not a law enforcement activity whose purpose is to punish the guilty and spare the innocent.  If we look at the history of warfare, their complaints about civilian losses in Gaza are disinformation and dissimulation, with no other identifiable purpose than to protect Hamas from the consequences of its actions.  The same goes for the bleating from António Guterres, UNRWA, and the International Court of Justice.  They are nothing more than our era’s counterparts of Axis Sally, Tokyo Rose, and Lord Haw-Haw.

This does not mean that it is ever acceptable to target genuine noncombatants, and Israel bends over backward to avoid hitting them.  Even enemy combatants in most wars, however, are guilty of nothing more than wearing the wrong color uniform.  Patriotism, being conscripted, and joining an army because one has no other prospects are not crimes that deserve any punishment, although the end result can be the same fate that countries with capital punishment reserve for only the worst murderers.  For every Ted Bundy who is executed for serial murders, or Charles Manson who dies of old age in prison for slaughtering innocent people, thousands of combatants are shot or blown up for no other reason than their service to the wrong (as perceived by the other side) government.

“The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy made this clear during an era in which few people joined armies out of patriotism.  An army was instead often the only alternative to debtor’s prison, starvation, or the workhouse, as the poem makes clear.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/04/war_is_not_law_enforcement.html

[rangerrebew]

It is to woke members of congress which is to say democrats and rinos.

[DefiantMassRINO]

War is destruction.

Weak ass State Department diplomats think of war as law enforcement.

[Smokin Joe]

Patriotism, being conscripted, and joining an army because one has no other prospects are not crimes that deserve any punishment, although the end result can be the same fate that countries with capital punishment reserve for only the worst murderers. 

That 'other guy' is armed, and will use that weapon to kill 'our guys'.
They have done so, even non combatants, and have celebrated that slaughter of those who weer not soldiers.

As a result, 'our guys' justifiably see that 'other guy' as a threat and will kill them first.

If the 'other guys' don't like that, lay down their weapons, strip off the uniform, and surrender.

Otherwise, they will continue to be perceived as a threat, and it is on, with all the nastiness that implies.

Simple enough.

[The_Reader_David]

War is destruction.

Weak ass State Department diplomats think of war as law enforcement.

War is a continuation of politics by other means. 

 There are lots of other things Carl von Clauswitz wrote on the subject that should be learned and kept in mind and heart by policy makers, among them

Kind-hearted people might of course think there was some ingenious way to disarm or defeat the enemy without too much bloodshed, and might imagine this is the true goal of the art of war. Pleasant as it sounds, it is a fallacy that must be exposed: War is such a dangerous business that mistakes that come from kindness are the very worst.

On the other hand the other great theorist of war, Sun Tzu, "The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting,"  and occasionally (as in our victory in the Cold War under Reagan) this supreme art is accomplished.  (Doing this, however, requires a rational adversary, which Hamas and Iran are not, so, alas for Israel, the civilians of Gaza and the world, I'm afraid Israel has to go with Clauswitz here.)