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“If you ever find yourself in a fair fight, it is all because your tactics suck” — 1stSgt (Ret) Jim Reisinger (USMC).
The quote above is probably one of the most profound maxims I learned in my service to the nation in uniform. I also carry it with me to this day. Engaging with your enemy is not about having a fair or proportionate contest; it is about crushing them and their will. Austrian General Carl Von Clausewitz asserted, “War is the imposition of your will upon the enemy.”
This is why I find it abjectly absurd and ludicrous to hear the rhetoric about “proportionate response” when it comes to the sovereign nation of Israel defending itself. It is pretty disconcerting to watch the international community express grief and sorrow when Israel is attacked, especially after the savage, brutal, and heinous assault of October 7, 2023, while that sentiment quickly fades as soon as Israel takes to the offense in defense of their right to exist.
This past weekend, many of us pulled up in front of the television to watch or attend a college or professional football game in person. As we cheered for our favorite team if the opposition scored a field goal, we did not want our team to respond with a field goal; we wanted a touchdown. Are teams penalized for not showing a proportionate response? The Texas Rangers are the 2023 Major League Baseball World Series champions. They went into the top of the 9th inning ahead 1-0 and scored four runs in that inning to win against the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0. Did the umpires in that game tell the Rangers they could not score any more runs since Arizona had scored none? After all, the Rangers were ahead 1-0; there was no need for additional scoring.
Nah, we are not down with proportionate response regarding sporting events. Otherwise, we would be happy with tied contests.
Or how about this talk about “ceasefires” and “pause?” Over the past 18 years since Israel departed the Gaza strip — yes, under Ariel Sharon in 2005 — how many times have we heard demands of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or the other Islamic terrorist/jihadist groups to take a pause or ceasefire? It is rather interesting that the progressive socialist leftists are calling for these actions, along with a “proportionate response.” Yet, they are more than giddy to have dozens of armed FBI agents raid the homes of pro-life activists or a man over 70 years old named Roger Stone. Yeah, they really do pose a dire threat. Even Barack Obama, back in June of 2008, once quipped, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” Yeah, that is how the left defines a “proportionate response.” If you marched on Capitol Hill on January 6th against the left, you were sent to the DC Gulag. But, if you march on Capitol Hill in support of an Islamic terrorist organization that just killed 30 Americans, well, you get the point.
Then again, we should not be surprised by the unholy alliance of progressive socialists and Islamic terrorists/jihadists. They both share anti-American and anti-Semitic passions and sentiments. Just think about this: the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hasan al-Banna, was a supporter of Adolf Hitler. Yasser Arafat’s uncle, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, was an ally of Adolf Hitler and provided Muslim troops for a Nazi SS unit that operated in the Balkans. It would appear his nephew did not fall far from that tree. Today, the progressive socialist leftists have their own little version of Hitler’s Brown Shirts, the SA, called Antifa, roaming about attacking anyone — including law enforcement — who doesn’t agree with these Marxists. Funny, have you heard of any FBI raids against Antifa leaders? Nah, the real domestic terrorists in the United States, according to the left, are parents, Moms for Liberty, Christians, and now Jewish students. There is nothing about the millions of single military-aged males who have crossed the border, some on the terrorist watch list.
Suppose you read the charter of Hamas and any of the derivative Islamic terrorist organizations spawned by the Muslim Brotherhood. In that case, it calls for the elimination and annihilation of the Jewish State and Jews. So, what is the “proportionate response” to an organization that is not protected by international rules of law or warfare, nor the Geneva Convention, that rapes and murders young women, kill entire families, and beheads babies? I mean, should Israel target the same? Why, of course not! The Israelis are targeting the organization that seeks their annihilation. Only a true idiot fails to realize that Hamas and these Islamic jihadist groups care little for their own people. They are used as human shields and propaganda pieces. This is why the Geneva Convention is harsh against non-state, non-uniformed belligerents on the battlefield because they endanger civilian lives intentionally.
Have you ever noticed in a college football game when a team has a high-powered, potent offense and they are driving the opposition defense hard? They play a real up-tempo style of football and prevent the defense from substituting players, wearing them down, especially by the fourth quarter. It never fails that there is some defensive lineman who, all of a sudden, drops and grabs his leg. They are always caught on replay. That tactic is used to give a pause, a break, for the defense to catch its breath and slow down the up-tempo offense. You always hear the heightened boos from the crowd.
The Israeli Defense Force has created a high operational tempo (OPTEMPO), and it is meant to drive the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas to its knees. These leftist terrorist sympathizers should shut up, but they are exposing themselves as accomplices. We now know that Russian paramilitary forces are being deployed. Iran’s foreign minister delivered a threat to the United States from the platform of the United Nations, a terrorist-supporting globalist body politic that has not condemned Hamas. There is only one goal: to convey the point that Israel has the right to exist. The only “proportionate response” is the unconditional surrender of any and all Islamic terrorist/jihadist groups and their state sponsors. After Pearl Harbor, America did not seek a “proportionate response;” we sought total and complete victory and to impose our will against our enemies. Our strategic, operational, and tactical maneuvers and operations were not about tit for tat. General George Patton did not seek to slow down once unleashed in the European theater of war. Yes, we used the most powerful weapon known to man in the Pacific theater rather than risk losing more Americans.
Only idiots and those who have never been on a battlefield believe in a “proportionate response” in war. As Union General William Tecumseh Sherman said, “War is hell.” That hell should be directed to Hamas after the atrocities they have mercilessly committed.
FBI Director Christopher Wray testified that our homeland is once again under a severe terrorist attack threat. To those pondering such, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will not protect you. It will be, as Maximus said in the movie Gladiator, “At my signal, unleash hell!” That will be the American response.
Steadfast and Loyal
Those on the Left and elsewhere calling for restraint by Israel in response to attacks by murderous Hamas terrorists are ignorant fools. They are suggesting a moral equivalence which does not exist.
Compare the precision bombing by the IDF after warning Gaza civilians to leave, so called “knocking on the roof”, minimising noncombatant deaths, with Hamas forcing its citizens to remain in place in the hope of creating massive casualties and international condemnation of the IDF.
Israel uses its weapons to protect its citizens. Hamas uses its citizens to protect its weapons.
Hamas thugs are desecrating bodies, killing babies, raping women and carting others off into sexual slavery. This a struggle between civilisation and barbarism.
The IDF is the most moral army in history. Hamas the most despicable. Israel has to ignore criticism from islam’s apologists, and carry on until Hamas is wiped off the face of the Earth.
Pray for Israel
Agreed Peter, but calling Hamas the most despicable is considered high praise by them.
All Leftists are ignorant fools,
Lefties are delusional self hating cowards
Amen, Mr. Williamson.
Israel is immoral to its own soldiers, by exposing them to danger to save enemy civilians rather than fully unleashing their firepower at the enemy.
Israel tries to avoid killing women and children, unlike the monster Hamas!
We don’t “do” victory anymore and we expect our friends not to, either. For what it’s worth, Biden, Blinken, Austin and the whole lot of you, Israel IS exercising restraint. If it wasn’t, Gaza would now have been a glassine parking lot since October 8.
Thanks Allen!!!
Thanks. But can the average citizen ask for “unleash hell” Because we are tired of all of this and it looks like that order will never happen.
If football games were limited to proportionate response then every game would end in a tie and every player on both teams would go home with a nice participation trophy. So what if the patriots fighting in the 18th century for American independence followed that strategy? Fortunately our patriots and especially George Washington didn’t settle for a participation trophy.
BTW:
Obama’s quip, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” Was stolen from Seam Connery in the film The Untouchables.
A dozen well placed nukes will end the cancer of islam.
Two billion Muslims rules out another Crusade.
Simultaneous maximum effect nukes on Mecca during Hajj, plus Tehran, Damascus, Doha, Kabul, Baghdad, Dhaka, Islamabad, Kazan, Jakarta, Cairo, Algiers, Mogadishu, Bradford (UK) – and Pyongyang just for luck. Israel’s stockpile should do it, but AIPAC and WZO must ensure that Bibi gets the long-range missiles. I Samuel 15.3. It’s the HaShoah that HaShem would have wanted, and Hollywood will never lack gorefest movie material.
“If you marched on Capitol Hill on January 6th against the left, you were sent to the DC Gulag.”
Where is the Right for the past 3 years since that flagrant violation of civil rights? Why were there not endless lawsuits filed immediately after those arrests demanding all the same rights that murderers and gangsters get automatically? This has convinced me that the Right in America is composed of complete incompetents, to put it mildly.
The Right is composed of complete cowards, especially in Congress.
And the “Big Guy”
Screw the “Proportionate Response “ B.S. Hamas are the cockroaches of humanity and must be exterminated with extreme prejudice. Great article Col. West.
Unfortunately they are too close to nuke
But…
I wish there was more of a discussion of the purpose of ‘proportionate response’ instead of silly football analogies (coaches do in fact stop scoring to avoid humiliating the opponent 77-0 sometimes).
I remember Vietnam when we were constantly handcuffed. why? was it to keep a lid on international condemnation? was it to prevent escalation to nukes? was it to avoid engendering a never-ending hate after the combat ends?
remember when they were whaling on Rodney King? they testified that they’re trained to use an escalating scale of force if the subject doesn’t comply (Rodney was on his hands and knees, not complying despite several earlier applications of limited force).
is that why Israel should be proportionate? so they still have another level of force to go to?
is proportionate response expected to give notice to the other side to stand down, or else more is coming? what if the enemy are barbaric ragheads who claim all lands as Dar al Harb (Land of War) where ever they do not rule? do army ants respond to reason?
how much heart should we have for the Moslem women who go along with wearing a bag and tolerating her husband beating her? the 9/11 hijackers carried box cutters to use on the stewardesses to ‘cut your animal’s throat.’ how are these women anything but orc breeders? and those precious children…who’ve been raised to be monstrous bigots and murderous haters? why take care of these civilians when they’re being used cynically?
how has the past experience with restraint worked out? made any friends? Clin-ton saved Moslems in the Balkans by bombing from 40,000 feet. is there one grateful camel jockey? anywhere?
the status quo has got to go.
You’re talking about tactics, while the “proportionate response” advocates are claiming some kind of nebulous ethical imperative which ends up meaning that victory is forbidden.
Analogies certainly have limited value, and that is why more clarity on what the real deep differences are is necessary. Part of the problem is that Islam officially stands for much that Western conservatives believe in. Maybe we don’t want women to “wear a bag”, but we are sick of feminism’s destruction of the family. We don’t advocate throwing homosexuals off a roof, but we do wish they would stop demanding that we worship them. Many of us are very tired about the deligitimization of religion even if we are not ready to get violent about it.
The list goes on and so does the confusion.
Nobody ever left me alone for a proportionate response. What got me and my friends left alone by predators was my disproportionate response. Once it comes to violence, they must pay more than they’re willing, to attack us. By high school nobody that knew me, or even knew of me, would let it come to violence. I knew I’d be in the ER, they knew me there by first name, and not just for fighting. The only question was would they be there with me. I got good at making sure they were.
When the answer to that was almost certainly yes, reason and words would almost always rule. We’d both find a way to avoid the violence. Funny how that works, but it makes it no less true. I’ll sacrifice my pride to avoid violence, but there are things I won’t. Sometimes, you gotta be mean. It makes for less violence over the long haul.
This ground war is all about bogging Israel down, using the tunnels, and Hamas coming in on ambulances. Once Hamas thinks they have Israel bogged down, they will bring in Hezbollah. Never underestimate the Satanic culture of Islam. Iran is trying to keep them busy (while making nuclear bombs. ) However, God sees all and he knows how many times the enemies of Israel have tried to wipe them out. Genesis 12 is true, God blesses those that bless Israel and curses those that curse Israel. More Amazing things are going to happen in the future. I hope this gets passed on to the right people in the IDF. Everyone who is rational is praying for Israel.
Thank you, again, Colonel, for your perfect analysis and commentary in this clear-eyed piece–one of many of yours that I’ve read over the years.
I will never forget, or forgive, the U.S. Army (and the JCS, and the several Presidents who have controlled them) for cashiering you for–if I recall, as I’m sure I do accurately–taking a terrorist outside your camp, blindfolded, forcing him to his knees, and then firing your pistol (harmlessly!) into the ground alongside his head, thereby scaring the daylights out of him into confessing his and his group’s plans to ambush your men.
And you were “thanked” for that improvised, lifesaving tactic by losing your Commission, instead of given a medal?
You saved your men’s lives–without harming the G-d terrorist with anything more than, maybe, a ringing in his ears for the next few hours, if that. Should you have put the noise-suppressing earmuffs on his head–the kind I always wear at my gun club’s range?–beforehand?
You ran for Congress, and won a well-deserved Seat in the House, where you served and voted valiantly. And then were gerrymandered out of your District.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Keep writing and posting, Colonel! I, and millions, will read and be inspired and encouraged by example and every word you write.
And to y0ur “critics” and detractors, I hoist the international semaphore flags: Golf, Foxtrot, Yankee!
We need Allen West as head of the DoD!
There is a great difference between the fool and terrible “advice” of Joe Biden, of “Not hitting Hamas too hard” As if such, a thing is possible and in contrast, the wisdom spoken by a genuine US President, Thomas Jefferson, who had rightly said “With every barbarous people….force is law.”
It should also be added that the jihadists who make up Hamas cannot and will not take heed of reason or logic. The only language that they are capable of understanding is that of the language of the might of a strong brutal military might. Therefore, they should be dealt with that way.
Furthermore, the appropriate ,fitting and right way that this appalling and horrific murderous and destructive jihad entity , Hamas, should be dealt with defeated and even destroyed is to hit it hard , hit it long and keep on hitting it with strong powerful forceful military strikes until it’s unable to raise up again with its ugly , vicious and deadly jihad Islamic head.
Joe Biden had actually given a warning type message to Benjamin Netanyahu of “Not to hit Hamas too hard.” It’s very obvious that treacherous old Joe must really admire and like the aggression of the hostile violent and murderous jihad of Islam.
It’s actually impossible to “hit Hamas too hard.” The reason why this is so is because as hard as the Israeli military can strike Hamas it never hard enough..
Nevertheless, Israel does need to strike Hamas as hard as she can keep on hitting that deadly savage jihad entity and not stop hitting it.
If not, Hamas will a resurgence, and in time, launch another malicious jihad attack against the State of Israel and murder more of her citizens.
That awful message that jihadist loving Joe is complete nonsense and total 100 % balderdash.
In contrast to the words of folly given by Biden, there is the wisdom that was spoken by a real US President, James Monroe, who declared in a speech “The right of self -defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and individuals.”