Thursday, July 27, 2006

Peace is the End, not the Means

It is not often that an editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle actually makes sense, but this one is pretty good. The points that Ms. Saunders brings up should be obvious to everyone. However, as the "give peace a chance" crowd illustrates so nicely, there are large numbers of idiots who are just too stupid to realize that lasting peace is never achieved through negotiated settlements and capitulation. Just ask Nevill Chamberlain. In the end, the only way to achieve lasting peace is to totally defeat the evil party in the conflict.

In the Israeli case, capitulation has only led to the Palestinians electing a radical terrorist party for leaders. There are a couple of reasons that God told the Israelites in the Old Testament to completely destroy their enemies when taking their land. First and foremost, the people from whom the land was being taken were practicing evil, false, and detestable religions, and God did not want His people influenced by that. Second, however, is that doing so is simply a wise military move, as the total defeat of the enemy is the only way to secure lasting peace. What was true then is still true today, and Israel is absolutely doing the correct thing in going after these scumbags with as much force as they can with an eye towards defeating them. There is no reason for them to make the same mistake with Hezbollah that they have been making with the Palestinians all these years.

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