We are 5 days into the latest edition of the IDF vs Islamic Terrorists. And we are 4.99 days into the calls for Israel to knock it off. The usual suspects are dragging out their copy and dispatching them to all news organizations: Israel is using disproportionate force...
Disproportionate force is a term of art...the art of war.
According to international law, Israel is not required to calibrate its use of force according to the size and range of the weaponry used against it. Since the majority of the targeting and the dead are not civilians, but intended Hamas targets, then disproportionate force is nullified. Collateral damage (civilian and non-military) is called disproportionate if and only if they are the intended targets.
The Powell Doctrine states that when you go to war 'you cut off the head and then kill the rest with all the force you have', He stated that when a nation goes to war, every resource and tool should be used to achieve decisive force against the enemy, minimizing your own casualties and ending the conflict quickly by forcing the weaker force to capitulate.
Shock and Awe is a strategic doctrine of the US. It is known in military circles as rapid dominance. It is a military doctrine based on the use of overwhelming power, dominant battlefield awareness, dominant maneuvers, and spectacular displays of force to paralyze an adversary's perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight. (The doctrine was written by Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade and is a product of the National Defense University of the United States in 1996.) They go on to write that the establishment of shock and awe through "instant, nearly incomprehensible levels of massive destruction directed at influencing society writ large, meaning its leadership and public, rather than targeting directly against military or strategic objectives even with relatively few numbers or systems..." which is what we did with nuclear weapons against Japan.
Was Hiroshima disproportionate? History says no. (you, of course, may disagree...but the weight of opinion is overwhelming)
Hamas has hurled 6300+ rockets into Israel since 2005, killing two dozen people. Imagine if the town or city twenty miles from you was doing the same thing...and you and your government did nothing.
Car and bus bombings, cafe bombings, school bombings, unguided missiles raining down on you....for years.
Enough is enough.
The age of terrorism and its offspring...Hamas, Hezbolla, Taliban, Baath, AlQueda... must be declared over. And 'we' (western civ) must not get weak-kneed over one of the avenues as to how to do it.
Sun Tzu long ago told us how: the selective and instant decapitation of military or societal targets to achieve shock and awe will force an enemy to lose his will.
The US and EU have declared Hamas a terrorist organization. What Israel is doing is backed up by every International court ruling on the conduct of war.
Its too bad 1.5 million Palestinians are being used as shields by Hamas. But their position is similar to the German populace in the 1940's. The people of Gaza are slowly realizing that their poor choices of leaders have real consequences. The people of Dresden knew this better than any...at the end.