QOTD: Jack Kelly

QOTD:Jack Kelly

Advocates of a "diplomatic solution" whatever the circumstances tend to believe (a) that nothing is worse than war; (b) that everybody agrees with (a), and (c) that there is no problem that can't be solved if people talk about it long enough.

But most people who aren't liberals think submission to tyranny is worse than war, and tyrants tend not to bargain in good faith for part of what they want if they think they can get it all by force.

When acts of aggression are met with gestures of appeasement, the aggressors (not unreasonably) assume the appeasers are afraid of them.

And since it was bad behavior that brought forth the gestures of appeasement, the aggressors are encouraged to behave worse, not better. Diplomacy based on hubris and cowardice inevitably leads to failure.

But that's a lesson some people never learn.

Are we too nice?

John Pohoretz asks the questions that I have been asking for a long time. The West has the military might to beat the Islamic terrorists, but does it have the philosophical makeup to decide to do just that? And pay whatever cost is necessary?

Could Israel - even hardy, strong, universally conscripted Israel - possibly stomach the bloodshed that would accompany the total destruction of Hezbollah?

If Lebanon's 300-plus civilian casualties are already rocking the world, what if it would take 10,000 civilian casualties to finish off Hezbollah? Could Israel inflict that kind of damage on Lebanon - not because of world opinion, but because of its own modern sensibilities and its understanding of the value of every human life?

QOTD: Hussein Massawi

Hussein Massawi, the Hezbollah leader behind the slaughter of U.S. and French forces 20 years ago. (via Mark Steyn)

We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you.

This is why you cannot buy off Hezbollah, Iran, or Hamas.

Mark Steyn

The forces at play in the Middle East are beyond the Geopolitical Friars' Club. The median age in Gaza is 15.8 years old. How likely is it that any of those bespoke Palestinian 'moderates' who've been permanent fixtures on CNN and BBC Middle East discussion panels for 30 years have any meaningful sway over a population of unemployed uneducated teenage boys raised by a death cult?

QOTD: Ephraim Sneh

Deputy Minister Defense Ephraim Sneh at the time of the 1992 Lebanon pullout:

We are leaving because of problems with the ability of the Israeli public to stand firm. That is the whole truth. There is no point in pretending.