More thoughts on the Middle East

The situation in the Middle East (between Israel and Lebanon, in Iraq, and even with Al Qaeda) keeps making me think about that scene in the movie, The Untouchables, that everyone likes so much, where Sean Connery's character gives the speech "if he pulls a knife you, pull a gun" - asserting that the way to win this thing is to out-bully the bully. But of course that's not what actually happened at all - Eliot Ness lost a lot of good people and they nabbed Capone on tax evasion. They didn't out-muscle him, they never could have out-muscled him - he was a savage, brutal man - it wouldn't have been possible to sink as low as he was willing to go. I agree with John McCain that the winning approach cannot reflect the character of the enemy but must reflect our own character. I know winning wars isn't pretty - Hitler wasn't defeated with tea parties and Sunday brunches. And I know there are things that go on in wars that are never discussed. But the idea that conflicts are always won by the most firepower is just a lie - it ignores history and it ignores reality and it's an insult to all of us.