I'm in a Shoe-Throwing Mood

The next person I hear bash Israel is going to get hit upside the head with my size eight and half shoes. I know, I know. That won't solve anything. I will have stooped to their level. Blah, blah, blah. Okay, so I WON'T actually slap them with my shoe. I'll just want to.

I'm sorry, did I miss something? Since when did Hamas become a recognized state? Last time I checked, it was a terrorist organization. Since when does it have authority to call on the world to stop aggression against it? And since when is aggression against a terrorist organization wrong? And since when is self-defense considered aggression?

Hamas has been firing rockets into Israel during the supposed truce and after the truce period ended. Israel is a sovereign nation with the right to protect herself against attacks. FYI: unprovoked rocket launches into one's country is an attack. And since when do Muslims around the world have the right to gather in violent mobs and descend on Israeli embassies? I can understand Egypt and Lebanon, but I'm embarrassed for Britain. I'm embarrassed for the English citizens who have lost their land (and frankly their cahones) to these radical Muslims who insist on wreaking havoc whenever, wherever, and however they choose.

While I am always sorry for the loss of innocent lives, it is largely the fault of terrorists that civilians are killed. When I see the battered children and the women in throes of anguish over their loss, it helps me to remember 9/11 and the loss of innocent lives on that day. The United States and her allies do not target civilians. In fact, we wear uniforms to help the enemy distinguish us from the rest of the population. It is the enemy who does not see in terms of soldier/civilian, in terms of army and innocents. The terrorists want to kill us all. Every last one. Don't take my word for it. Read the Koran. All of it, not just the pithy parts you hear quoted on the news.

It's true, whether or not the world wants to believe it: Israel is trying to avoid civilian casualties, while Hamas is looking for children to kill. Hamas (and the Taliban and other terrorist groups) targets kindergartens and schools and citizens and civilians because this is according to their values. It is not our fault that terrorists hide among civilians. Sadly, they know that there will be collateral damage and then much worse damage when the press (and eventually the public) turns against the brave soldiers on our side who do the nasty (and often thankless) business of protecting us from harm.

Why do we cower to Hamas and Hezbollah and those that chant in their defense from the safety of democratic societies? Let's allow Israel to do what must be done, to defend herself against aggressive enemies who have vowed her destruction, and then let us root out the elements of terror from among our own neighborhoods.