Looking For Truth…

Kevin H says:

Thanks, Michael, for the commendation.

With greater access to information, details, and facts than we have ever had before in human history, we sure seem to have a heck of a problem deciphering and handling truth.

I try to keep most of my writings on Facebook these days in order to avoid bringing the wretched morass of political matters here. Things only flare up from time to time here, while on Facebook they are a constant. So I try to engage for the most part where things are already and consistently a big mess, and address it directly there, while trying to limit the potential stoking of messes here.

Many of those who would “spit at me in the spirit” have unfriended me at this point. (There are a couple who I have had to take the step to unfriend, including one former member of this community, because they grew worse and worse in their belligerence, dishonesty, and antagonism towards me.) Sadly, they are probably the ones who most need to hear the message I try to preach, but they have instead decided to cut me off.

It is funny how preaching a message, while certainly imperfectly so, yet still focuses on following the ways of Jesus and following the commands and precepts that God gives us in the Bible, results in such a negative and vile reaction by many who claim to be following Christ.

Kevin H says:

I think it is important that we understand what “proportionate” means when it comes to the law of war. The following three paragraphs from a recent David French article I think are helpful:

“As the war continues and as the destruction mounts, you will hear a number of voices condemn Israel for a disproportionate response, but many of these critics fundamentally misunderstand what proportionality means in the law of war. The U.S. Army’s ‘Law of Land Warfare’ field manual — which is deeply grounded in the international law of armed conflict and governed our urban operations in Iraq and Afghanistan — defines the legal obligation of proportionality as requiring ‘commanders to refrain from attacks in which the expected loss or injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects incidental to such attacks would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage expected to be gained.” It also requires that commanders’ take feasible precautions to reduce the risk of harm to civilians, other protected persons and civilian objects.’ ”

“Proportionality does not require the Israel Defense Forces to respond with the same degree of force or take the same proportion of casualties as Hamas. In addition, as the manual states, ‘the proportionality standard does not require that no incidental harm results from attacks.’ If you’re a soldier on patrol and someone fires at you with a rifle, you don’t have to respond with a rifle. You can use a tank round or a missile in response, unless you have reason to believe the tank round or missile will cause extraordinary collateral damage. But if you’re taking fire from a single house, proportionality prohibits you from destroying the entire block. Throughout the war on terrorism, American forces used powerful, longer-range weapons to attack individual targets. That does not violate the laws of war.”

“In reality, inflicting disproportionate casualties can be one of the goals of a fighting force. Ukraine appears to have inflicted substantially greater casualties on Russia than the Russian Army has inflicted on Ukraine. That doesn’t mean Ukraine’s response was disproportionate under the law of armed conflict. In every fight, the goal is to inflict as many losses as possible on your opponent while taking as few losses as possible.”

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Looking on from the outside, it may often times be hard to discern whether specific acts by Israel, or their response as a whole is “proportionate” by definition of the law of war. Even at that, a Christian is not compelled to have to agree that this definition of “proportionate” is right or just, but at least it gives us a baseline where we can be speaking the same language when using the word proportionate in relation to war.

What I would hope we could all agree to, regardless as to whether or not Israel’s response is justified or not, is that the destruction, suffering, and loss of life being experienced by the people of Gaza is heartbreaking.

Kevin H says:

DH,

Of course what happened to the innocent Israeli’s was horrific and heartbreaking. There was no justification whatsoever as to what happened to them.

However, the topic at hand was Israel’s response to Hamas and what is happening in Gaza and so that was what I was addressing.