Give war a chance?

Via Steven D, vintage 2006.

Is Israel justified in exercising its inherent right of self defense against Hamas? https://t.co/OqsCOdxaZt
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) July 23, 2014

Classic, like the inverse of "Have you stopped beating your wife?" Here's this thing I define as universally, intrinsically justified, and my question is if Israel does it is Israel justified in particular?

Well, sure! And was the Emperor Nero justified in doing the things that any normal man would do? Absolutely, to the extent he did them; it was the abnormal things we have a problem with, like murdering his mother, kicking his wife to death, forcing his distinguished philosophy tutor to commit suicide, having most of Rome burned, and persecuting Christians. If Nero said, "Well, I'm just exercising my inherent right of self-defense against those Christians," would we say, "Oh, well, then, carry on" and go back to watching TV?

Or as young Ian was putting it,

"Please stop nailing baby bunnies to the ground with tent stakes." "Are you saying I'm not allowed to put up a tent in my own yard?"
— Ian Actual (@iboudreau) July 26, 2014

Some sociopath in The New Republic:

We can say that there is a principle worth fighting and dying for: Civilians cannot be used to make just wars impossible and morality will not be used as a tool to disarm.

Corey Robin comments:

The Gaza war, you see, is not a war over tunnels. It’s not even a war in defense of Israel. It’s a war about…war, a war in defense of just war. Once upon a time, crackpots thought they were fighting a war to end all wars. That was its justice. Now they’re fighting a war in order to make just war possible. That is its justice.

The theory of just war is supposed to impose limits upon the launching and fighting of wars. It’s a condition of, a constraint upon, war. But here it becomes the end—both the aim and the justification—of war. Because that is the aim of Israel’s war, “civilians cannot be used” to make such a war “impossible.” They must instead be used to make it possible.

Image by DreamlessXPassion.

"All we are saying..."

Ex-Ambassador Michael Oren in the Washington Post, explaining what a nice little Bantustan you got there, shame if anything even worse happened to it:

Life in Gaza is miserable now, but if Israel is permitted to prevail, circumstances can improve markedly.... To guarantee peace, this war must be given a chance.

Come on, Dad, just one little war? I promise I'll take care of it myself. Heck, you won't even know it's there.