Dennis Prager's thoughts

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@Great Snook

Would you still find it funny if you were the 13year old who was used as human shield by the soldiers?

 

I find it incredibly idiotic that people would be stupid enough to throw stones at soldiers. I have always felt that the soldiers show remarkable restraint. I think they would be perfectly justified in killing anyone holding a rock or blowing up any building that people were throwing rocks from. But that is just me.

 

Soldiers are required to show restraint; it's called disicpline. And it is a virtue that is supposed to be instilled, because of the life and death situations for which soldiers are trained.

One of the historical centerpieces of the Vietnam War is the shooting and killing of four students at Kent State University. According to historical accounts, national guardsmen fired on a crowd of students demonstrating and throwing rocks. But this situation was Americans killing Americans.

It became somewhat of a turning point in the politics of the war. I can only imagine the shock of Americans if such an incident happened over the War in Iraq. The war in Iraq would probably suffer the same politcal fate as the one in Vietnam.

Turning to Isreal, Americans would rather not think about the bloodshed between the people in that region. No American lives are apparently lost over the conflict between Isreal and Palestine. As a result, the cycle of violence is now commonplace there, and most Americans seem at a loss on what to make of it.


Any real supporter of Isreal, as I am, would want to see a greater effort to ending the violence toward Isreal. America and Isreal share the same commitment to democratic institutions, which in that part of the world are hardly commonplace. But any reasonable person can see that the cycle of one-upsmanship in the bloody dance of violence has led to only more of the same.

I fear that this is the situation that some are attempting to lead America into with the Muslim world also. The same cycle of one-upsmanship has not worked during decades of violence in the Arab-Isreali conflict, so is there any reason that we should expect a better outcome between America and the Muslim world? especially in Iraq?

In Vietnam, the question became: What is the end game? When there was no answer, most Americans no longer wanted any part of it. It seems we may be reaching the point where that is the crucial question in the same ongoing debate over Iraq.

[ May 16, 2004, 03:07: Message edited by: Chandos the Red ]

 

Well said Chandos.

I also am a supporter of Israel, but I do acknowledge that Israel is in a very dangerous position.

I fear that one day the terrorists will do something so horrific that Israel's response will be shock even the die-hard American supporters.

If that were to happen and Israel was left to fend for themselves, while surrounded by enemies... Well I really don't want to even think about it.

 

To continue to be a bit off-topic I saw on the news yesterday thousands of people in Tel Aviv demonstrated for Israeli withdrawal in Gaza. Then we have had that alternative peace talk which was going marvelously between Israelis och Palestinians. Anyone thinking they are in any way supporting Israel would want an end to the violence and that means an end to the current regime. However, the sad part is that, in Israel as among the Palestinians it is the extremist and lunatics who makes the policy, and they dont want peace. We all know that Hamas and their ilk want to drive all jews into the sea, but you should also know by now that Sharon and his ilk want to drive every palestinian into the desert or exterminate all of them as the vermin Sharon sees them as.

 

Takara:


I DID respond to your points. Dmc gave a good example of why you cannot make such a statement as "The newscast showed an innocent person being targeted by Israelis for no reason...". It is like someone showing you, oh I don't know...let's say 7 seconds of video of cops beating a black motorist with their batons and whatnot. 7 Seconds of an encounter that lasted several minutes for example. That seven seconds will do a great job of showing the (re)reactions of officers toward the unarmed motorist but that segment cannot possibly tell you that the motorist was hopped up on pcp, came at the officers numerous times even AFTER being "tazed" and pepper-sprayed. The seven second video will not tell you what a person on pcp is capable of adn how frightening such an encounter can be. It will not tell you that a person high on pcp is capable of breaking police handcuffs and punching through windshields or taking several bullets adn STILL managing to snap someone's neck.
The video will not tell you what sorts of movements, actions, words etc. the motorist engaged in to elicit such a response by officers.

What if the Israeli police SAW the "innocent woman" sticking a grenade in her shirt before heading towards the daycare? The newscast would not tell you that.

Tune in to FOX News sometime for some good examples of how political bias affects the presentation of a story.

 

Oh, it certainly will, but not in the way I think you intended this statement to be interpreted.