Proportional Stupidity

by digby

You know, it’s one thing for people to dispute whether Israel’s incursion into Gaza is disproportionate. It seems obvious to me that it is, but people can argue that in good faith. However, I’m frankly gobsmacked by the cavalier attitude of some Israeli and American politicians, like Michael Bloomberg, who blithely assert that a disproportionate response is exactly the right thing to do:

“The concept of proportional response is one of the stupider things I’ve ever heard in my life. If it was your family, would you want a proportional response? No, you’d want every single resource to be brought to bear to stop those who are killing innocent people.”

Well then genocide and nuclear holocaust are logically on the menu too, eh?

Why am I not surprised. Once we became a nation whose leasers casually describe torture techniques as “no-brainers” why would anything be off limits? This is the natural snowball effect of a nation which no longer even tries to pay lip service to the idea of international law. Apparently, all such laws are now irrelevant in all things, not just under the Bush doctrine. (And even Bush acknowledges the concept.)

You don’t have to be foreign policy genius to understand why the concept of “proportionate response” is necessary to the survival of the planet.

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