The Right and Obligation to Self-Defense

The army's keeping me really busy so this will be a short one.

From today's Straits Times:

Reuters, the global news and information agency, told a freelance Lebanese photographer on Sunday it would not use any more of his pictures after he doctored an image of the aftermath of an Israeli air strike on Beirut.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-08-06T215602Z_01_L06301298_RTRUKOC_0_US-MIDEAST-REUTERS.xml&src=rss


and an interesting 60 Minutes video here. it gets a bit long - stay with it!

http://www.break.com/index/what_really_happens_pallywood.html


You could say what everyone has been saying about restoring peace and negotiating "a fair settlement agreeable for all parties" and "relieving the distress of the innocent Lebanese people". But let's put things in a local context:-

Imagine a terrorist group supported by and based in a neighbouring country enters Pulau Tekong and ambushes and kidnaps a few new recruits training there. They then suddenly fire barrages of high-explosive rockets into Woodlands, Yishun and Hougang. The rockets strike factories, shops, roads and HDB flats, destroying much property. Thankfully, casualties are few, due to the efficiency of our SCDF and the fact that most people living there have evacuated south to Toa Payoh, Bedok and Jurong etc. (This explains the much lower death toll on the Israeli side). However, the northern estates are effectively emptied and reduced to ghost towns, their HDB blocks damaged and half-collapsed. Economic activity in these areas likewise grinds to a total halt, severely affecting that of the rest of the nation.

Would you tolerate this?

Any warm-blooded Singaporean wouldn't. Sitting down doing nothing and eating rockets is like freely letting a rapist into your house to ravage you. No- you will do all you can to stop it. Complain to the UN? You wouldn't even bother. They will take months and years. The fury of all the nation would be aroused, as is happening in Israel now with near universal support for the war, and it would do everything in its power. So it activates the only real power - Force Of Arms - and the SAF will go in. They tell us that the SAF exists so we do not have to rely on outsiders for our defence, and likewise for the Israeli Defence Forces.

And when your military has gone in to do their work - everything in your power still applies. So you would allow them free rein to do just about anything so that ultimately your homeland would be safe. That is the overriding priority. The sad truth in this case is that it is better that THEIR civilians die rather than YOURS. Your particular duty to safeguard the peace and security of your own people is higher than the general wartime obligation to avoid loss of innocent lives. And so the Israelis will carry on, until the rockets stop and Hizbullah is exterminated.

This is one-sided I know, but I write here in consideration of the fact that most people lean towards the other side.




This is not a war of unprovoked aggression. It is a justified response to a clear and present danger to the Israeli homeland that is causing significant destruction, casualties and disruption to life. The sooner we stop the rockets, the sooner we will stop military action, the fewer people will die, and we can all get on with our lives!