If I were running Israel

“There have been more cease-fires in the Middle East than anywhere else. If cease-fires actually promoted peace, the Middle East would be the most peaceful region on the face of the Earth instead of the most violent.” —Thomas Sowell

If you have been following the goings-on between Lebanon and Israel, your opinion probably falls into one of two camps. If you’re conservatively challenged, I’d guess that it would be that Israel’s response to the Hezbollah terrorist attacks are “disproportionate.”

Believe it or not, I tend to agree with that opinion. Mostly though, I think Israel’s response has not been “disproportionate” enough. That would be because there are physical structures still standing in Lebanon anywhere within 40 miles of the Israeli border. To be more precise, were I running that country, there would be a 40-mile demilitarized zone established post-haste, extending northward from the Lebanese-Israeli border wherein anything that moved within said DMZ would be immediately exterminated.

While the feckless United Nations and European Union run around decrying the loss of “innocent” human lives and applying bogus moral equivalency standards between the actions of a free and democratic nation (that would be Israel) and a terrorist organization (Hezbollah), Israel is getting the job done.

This is what needs to happen to terrorists and any nations that support them.

You handle terrorists with swift and blinding violence. Extermination. Not talk.

I don’t give a rip why Islamo-facists don’t like the West any more than I care why a rabid dog wants to rip out my throat. I don’t want a dialogue with it. I don’t want to understand its pain. I don’t want to deal with it.

If it is a threat, it gets put down. Period. End of story. No recriminations. No hand wringing angst. No kidding.

By the way, if you consider democracy, freedom and “rights” to be an imposition, you have serious historical reference deficiencies. (I’d suggest the Declaration of Independence as a starter.)

And as for our particular actions of late only contributing to additional terrorism, consider this: The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, happened before we invaded Afghanistan or Iraq.

Besides, terrorists have been blowing themselves up and killing en masse for 30 years. Check history lately?

Maybe the “proportionate response” crowd should consider what it is actually asking for: A proportionate response would be for Israel to change its official policy and begin intentionally targeting civilians, like oh, say, Hezbollah and friends do.

And while liberals (and their obtuse friends in the Democratic Party) like to talk tough about terrorism, let’s look at what they’d actually do to combat it. First, no PATRIOT Act. Next, no torturing terror suspects. And no wire-tapping terror suspects, either. Equate the Abu Ghraib scandal with terrorist beheadings and, oh yes, close down the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Withdraw from both Iraq and Afghanistan. Because clearly both countries have a stable enough infrastructure to function without security forces, and that over-the-hill presence is enough to keep the little darlings (terrorists) in line, right?

Or perhaps not.

I mean, come on. Your average liberal would spend tax money on everything from government-sponsored needle exchange programs for addicts to water stations in the middle of the desert for illegal aliens.

And they turn into freaking conservatives should anyone talk about defense?

Although if you have a problem with Israel and Iraq or our handling of it, perhaps your heroes in the Democratic Party should put forth a proposition to “de-fund” the military in Iraq and all of the Middle East?