Posted 8:58 PM by steve

Courtesy of Ace, I saw this video on Powerline, which shows the Israelis destroying a house in Lebanon from which a terrorist was firing rockets into Israel.

While I'm glad the Israelis got the scum, I think the video is also evidence of how the Rules of Engagement the Israelis are using are jeopardizing their own citizens. If you watch the video, you'll see the terrorist drive up to the house, carry rockets from one structure to another, then fire those rockets into Israel. Note the Israelis don't take the guy out while he's driving up to the house, nor do they take him out while he's carrying the rockets. They wait until after he has fired before they attack the structure.

Since the Israelis have no defense against missiles or rockets that have been fired, each of the rockets this terrorist fired, absent a technical malfunction, would have reached its target and could have caused the death or injury of numerous Israelis.

On one hand I applaud the Israelis for wanting to make sure before they open fire. On the other hand, I think it is inexcusable for a government to order its military to withhold fire on suspected enemy positions until after the enemy has opened fire on friendly positions. It is wrong, wrong, wrong for the Israelis to put its own citizens at risk in order to save one of the not-so-innocent Lebanese in the area from a perhaps untimely death.

The only legitimate reason for going to war is to protect the lives of your fellow citizens... and if some poor schmuck in Lebanon dies in order to take out what was thought to be a rocket launcher, but as Ace puts it, turned out to be golf clubs, so be it. Wrong place, wrong time. S**t happens in wartime.