Kill or be killed

In 1973 Israel was attacked on the holiest day of the Jewish year, Yom Kippur, by Syria and Egypt. (Jordan and Iraq forces joined when it thought it was going to miss out on killing Jews.) It is known as the Ramadan War in the Arab world. (I guess it's o.k. to initiate a war during Ramadan while receiving one during Ramadan is an offense against Islam.) Israel, caught by surprise, was almost overrun by these forces. It went on nuclear alert and the lore is that it had three nuclear weapons loaded on F-4s ready to nuke Damascus and Cairo. It didn't have to do that as the military tide turned. But I wonder if Syria or Egypt had had nuclear weapons in 1973 would they have hesitated to use them against Israel on Yom Kippur. I have no doubt they would have happily nuked Tel Aviv and then danced in the streets handing out sweets and candies. Then as now Israel hasn't acted disproportionately but rather has restrained their actions and their military.

We hear of face-to-face combat in the town of Bint Jbail, Lebanon and ground troops being killed by Hezbollah terrorists. Ask yourself why doesn't Israel just flatten the town like Syria did to its own people in Hama killing maybe 20,000 Muslims. Remember, Muslims killing Muslims, as in Iran-Iraq war, Lebanese civil war, Jordan/Black September, Iraq-Kuwait war, Iraq civil war, Egypt killing protesters, Darfur (Arab Muslims killing African Muslims), etc., etc., etc. it's business as usual. Shi'ites killing Sunnis. Sunnis killing Shi'ites. Boys will be boys. But an Israeli killing a Muslim because the Muslim fires rockets into Haifa? Well, then the world must condemn it. Kofi and Chirac and Putin (having destroyed Muslim Chechnya) condemn Israel and call for a cease-fire so Hezbollah can re-arm and Israel can wait for the next rocket barrage because some blood-thirsty murderer in Bint Jbail decides to please Allah. But back to my question. Why doesn't Israel nuke Iran? Why doesn't it lay waste to south Lebanon instead of telling residents and terrorist alike where they will attack so they can lose infantry just to avoid bad p.r.? Why not? Because they're not blood-thirsty animals intent on targeting civilians like the Islamic terrorists do when they launch unguided missiles into Israel's third largest city. That's the difference.

Israel and its army has morals and the other side does not. Even the U.N.'s humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, accused Hezbollah of "cowardly blending" in among Lebanese civilians and causing the deaths of hundreds during two weeks of fighting. Egeland told reporters, "Consistently, from the Hezbollah heartland, my message was that Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending ... among women and children," he said. "I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men."

The bottom line is Islamic radicalism or whatever you want to call it, these bomb laying rocket launching terrorists are ruining the world. Pick a side before they get nuclear weapons and pick one for you.