Dean's World

CaliforniaJosh responding to blockquoted text:

supporting Hamas doesn't make you a terrorist

I never claimed it did. They could be American Christians for all I care, I'd still want the entire parade bombed.

10% of gaza turned out ostensibly in support of the democratically elected hamas government.

Are you implying that Hamas has upheld the law since winning their election? The Nazis were elected too. Just because a government is elected does not mean they are not an enemy.

they're well within their rights as an electorate to show support for their candidates.

I never said they weren't. They have chosen to rally next to valid military targets, and if they chose to take that risk, that's their choice. After a good carpet bombing, I doubt other citizens would choose to show up at the next rally, but I do hope they would.

It's not like this was a demonstration/rocket attack.

Are you implying that Israel may only retaliate to first strikes, and not utilize preemptive attacks against their enemies?

Also, consider this from a slightly more utilitarian perspective.

Excellent idea: The world would be better off without Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. Therefore they all should be nuked immediately.

Even if we killed that 10%, wouldn't you think that would radicalize a significant portion of the remaining 90%?

If killing the 10% radicalized the remaining 90%, then they too should be killed, and thus made an example of. I say burn the entire Gaza strip to the ground and all its people along with it. [The fascist and barbaric side of] the muslim world needs a taste of their own medicine. The Japanese decided to fight like bastards during WWII, the details of which I need not elaborate on, and they ended up getting exactly what they deserved. Actually, had they not surrendered, we'd of been correct to nuke their entire island chain and exterminate the entire country. Hamas has declared war, killed innocent civilians, and made their intentions clear (destruction of Israel). If Hamas had Israel's military power, and the situation was reversed, what do you think they'd do with it?

War is brutal and bloody. Hamas wants Israel to be destroyed, thus Hamas should be destroyed. Gaza has chosen Hamas, thus they want Israel destroyed. Thus Gaza should be destroyed.

Palestine was lost to the British the same way it was lost to the Turks, by force. Muslims conquered the area by force, then lost it by force. Their claim that Jews took their land is false. The British took the land, because the Turks chose to go to war with them. Then the Jews took it from the British. According to muslims who claim "once Muslim land, always muslim land" they deserve southern spain back.

For those of you that will conveniently assume I hate all muslims, that's not exactly true. I hate Wahhabi Islam as a religion, Saudi society, Iran's unelected mullahs, Hezbollah, Hamas, and those that support them.

Some quotes for rumination.

"Power and violence are opposites; where the one rules absolutely, the other is absent. Violence appears where power is in jeopardy, but left to its own course it ends in power's disappearance." -- Arendt, Hannah

"Without a love of humankind there is no love of God." -- Asch, Sholem

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." -- Asimov, Isaac

"Democracy substitutes self-restraint for external restraint. It is more difficult to maintain than to achieve." -- Brandeis, Louis D.

"Just as the Temple was destroyed through baseless hatred, it will only be rebuilt through baseless love." -- Kook, Rav

""My country, right or wrong," is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except a desperate case. It is like saying, "My mother, drunk or sober."" -- Chesterton, Gilbert K.

"The worth of the state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it." -- Mill, John Stuart

"Hungry people cannot be good at learning or producing anything, except perhaps violence." -- Bailey, Pearl

"Violence does even justice unjustly." -- Carlyle, Thomas

These violent delights have violent ends." -- Shakespeare, William

"If you want peace, work for justice." -- Pope Paul VI

All I have to add is, let us not mistake the boasts of boys for the wisdom of men.