Ziggurat
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2003
- Messages
- 58,138
it's not a war - it's an anti-terrorist action. Only one side is a State Actor.
That's really not true. Hamas is a state actor. It's got a government, it has citizens, it controls territory. It's a state actor. Refusing to recognize it as a state actor doesn't make it not a state actor.
And state actors can engage in acts of terrorism as part of war. These things aren't mutually exclusive.
And just because your opponent commits atrocities DOES NOT give you the right to commit atrocities right back
What exactly do you mean by "atrocities"? If any military action against Hamas which results in civilian casualties is considered an atrocity, then actually yes, Israel has the right to commit atrocities.
The very best argument you can make is from a "end justifies the means" perspective, but that would require Israel to formulate and publicize a plan for what comes after that would lead to a much better outcome for Israeli and Gazans alike.
See, that's just stupid. There's no obligation to publicize your plans. There's no obligation to give your enemy an opportunity to thwart them.
Retaliation for its own sake IS NOT A LEGITIMATE RESPONSE !
It absolutely is. Simple game theory indicates that retaliation is actually a moral imperative. Are you not familiar with tit-for-tat strategies in iterated prisoner's dilemma games?