War is always bad, but it is sometimes necessary.
Watching the grueling videos of Hamas’ savagery reminds me of the Rape of Nanking. Japanese soldiers happily raped and murdered hundreds of thousands of civilians during WWII. Children were used for bayonet practice. People were burned alive. Young women — some only 12 years old — were abducted and used as “comfort women” or sex slaves by marauding Japanese soldiers. Sound familiar?
FACT-O-RAMA! I’ve never seen a picture of an American soldier holding a civilian’s head and laughing. I can’t say the same for Hamas or the Japanese.
Our military men faced a unique situation when fighting Japan. The Imperial Japanese soldiers were known savages and worse, more than happy to die for their cause. Sound familiar?
Israel faces the same dilemma in their newest battle with Hamas. Hamas fighters enjoy the barbarity they commit on Israeli women and children. If a Hamas fighter dies, he seriously believes 72 virgins await his grand entrance into paradise. Jihadis frequently strap on bombs and pull a kamikaze stunt by killing themselves and taking as many “infidels” as possible with them to the next dimension.
So how does Israel deal with a bunch of animals who are happy to die for their cause? They need to do what the United States was forced to do with Japan: kill them until they are tired of dying.
Despite what the headline may imply, I do not think Israel should drop a Fat Man or a Little Boy on Gaza. I do believe the only way to win is to take out their ability and desire to fight.
Germany only surrendered after the Allies had bombed the nation into rubble and then occupied every relevant inch of Deutsche real estate needed to force them to stop fighting. Germany even continued fighting for roughly eight days after their Führer popped a 32 ACP cap in his head from a legendary Walther PPK. Germany stopped battling because they couldn’t realistically fight anymore.
Japan was different. Yes, their cities were dust. Their ships were rusting on the bottom of the Pacific, and thousands of their soldiers were trapped on the island of Rabaul and elsewhere.
But like Germany, Japan was training their 14-year-olds to fight. They had no intention of surrendering; that would be shameful. Only after the threat of more atomic bombs vaporizing more civilians did Emperor Hirohito decide to capitulate. Even then, a battalion of soldiers attempted a last-minute coup to kidnap the emperor and stay in the fight.
What finally convinced the Japanese emperor to give up? He realized the Japanese civilians had had enough death.
FACT-O-RAMA! Statistics vary but Japan lost roughly 2,100,000 military men and 1,000,000 civilians in WWII. One million of those soldiers, sailors, and airmen are still missing throughout Asia and the South Pacific. The last living Japanese soldier surrendered in the Philippines on March 9, 1974, only after his former commanding officer returned to the Philippines and instructed him to do so.
I fear Israel is up against the same mentality. They may have no choice but to kill those who want to die, and I suspect that is a sizable number. Of course, that may drive Muslims from other nations to join the fight. There are an estimated 1.7 billion Muslims on the planet. If just 1% want to fight, Israel will have to kill 1.7 million fighters, which seems implausible.
Related: Now Hamas Wants a Truce. Here’s Why Israel Shouldn’t Give Them One.
Then again, unless Muslims are killing Jews, the various nations have little unity. Egypt refuses to allow Palestinians to enter their country even as Israel is planning to pulverize Gaza. Jordan controlled the West Bank decades ago and could have handed it to the Palestinians but chose not to. Would the Muslim world come to die for Palestine? Unlikely.
To other Muslims, Palestinians are no more than a convenient excuse to wage war with the Jews forever, and unless Israel makes a stand, that is exactly what will happen.
I always prefer peace but I fear Israel’s only real option is to convince Hamas and the various other Muslim terror groups to stop fighting the same we convinced the Japanese to quit, which means Israel may have a whole lot of killing to do.
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