There is evil in the world. We are not it. Someday, maybe you’ll see it before it is too late for you.

Keep excusing that evil, though and there is little chance you will.

In other words, you *don’t* believe in applying the standards equally. And, apparently, you don’t want to be called on it, either.

You make my point for me, Gaius. You don’t believe in applying the standards equally. That’s what your “moral equivalence” mantra is all about. You are stating it as plain as day and you don’t even realize it. The U.S. and Israel are inherently superior and thus should not be held to the same moral standards as other countries. Any attempt to actually hold them to the same moral standards as other countries — especially the countries we hate — is labeled “moral equivalence.”

You are both rationalizing the indiscriminate killing of civilians. People can find a way to legitimize anything if they really want to, but that doesn’t change the fact it’s a rationalization.

Of course I’m outraged at Hezbollah. They started this whole thing and they probably were hoping for exactly the reaction from Israel that they got. But that doesn’t change the fact that Israel IS deliberately following a scorched earth strategy in the hope that it will turn Lebanese civilians against Hezbollah. It’s a counterproductive strategy, because Israel is actually NOT hitting the areas where Hezbollah fighters and sympathizers are. Read Michael Totten on this. He lives in Lebanon, he is in the midst of this, and he is actually sympathetic toward Israel. But he feels Israel is going about this the wrong way.

As for applying the standards equally, it’s YOU who needs to do that, not me. In your world, everything Israel and the U.S. do in the Middle East (or anywhere, for the U.S.) is fine, even when what they’re doing is exactly the same as what the people on the other side, whom you hate, are doing. If the U.S. is doing it (or in this case, Israel) it’s not wrong, by definition — because, by definition, the U.S. or Israel *cannot* do anything wrong.

Israel is not deliberately targetting civilians in either Lebanon or Gaza. What they are striking is Hamas and HezB weapons caches, communications, troops and other infrastructure. Unfortunately Ham and Hez, as a matter of tactics, hide their facilities in heavily populated ares to insure maximun civillian casualties if Isr. strikes those targets. This is a similar tactic to what North Vietnam did during Vietnam, Sadam did in IRaq, and what Iran has done with its Nuc. facilities.

Virtually all of Irans Nuke facilities are burried under cities and towns. When we get past the diplomatic cha-cha and bomb them, the collateral damage (civillan dead), will be very high but that can not be avoided given where the enemy put their assets.

If an enemy military uses civilian buildings for shelter those buildings are fair targets under the rules of War.

Lastly HezB’s rockets are virtually unguided, like the German V-1 in WWII. Fuel them point them and fire them off – they fly unitl they are our of fuel and then they fall on anything under them, most of what Isr. is using are smart/guide weapons aimed at specific buildings….

Try applying the standards equally at least.

I agree. And Israel’s deliberate and ongoing attacks against civilians in Lebanon should be denounced even by Israel’s allies, like the United States.

Of course, it’s a bit awkward for the Bush administration to denounce deliberate and ongoing attacks against civilians, considering.