Israel got tired of suffering under the constant barrage of rocket fire from Gaza, fired from Hamas positions, and attacked the Gaza area, which is controlled by Hamas. If the Gaza area is not going to control the Hamas, and stop the constant rocket firing into Israel, then Israel forces are going to go into the Gaza area and put a stop to it themselves.
A few years back, on another message board, a poster wrote this: "Yes I understand that people are going to die. Viet Nam taught me that. But Lord knows there's got to be a better way." I posted this:
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That's what the League of Nations was all about. President Wilson fought hard and long to get this established after the First World War — the war to end all wars — but was rebutted by the Congress. The off-shoot of the League of Nations is the United Nations. Member Nations would gather together to settle their differences in council rather than raise an army and attack each other, and those recalcitrant nations would be handled by the United Nations peacekeeping forces. This is still a good idea, albeit rather fumbling at times. It's a shame that the nations don't work harder to implement peacekeeping ideals, but there are so many different ideoligies to contend with.
I wrote this on another message board awhile ago concerning dropping THE BOMB on Japan:
Too many people support war. When their boy gets old enough to go to war, they are proud when he enlists for duty, and my, doesn't Johnny look handsome in his new uniform. When Johnny comes home in a body bag, and they have to have a closed casket funeral for him because, all of a sudden, Johnny isn't so handsome in his new uniform anymore; war becomes "up close, and personal".
Ken Burns produced a series on the Civil War, and in one segment depicted the town citizens, who, learning of a battle that was going to be fought just outside of town, gathered family and friends and went out to the hillsides to picnic and watch the proceedings. The battle was fought aways off, so they were not actually at risk. Mr. Burns also noted the famous photographer Mathew Brady, who, with his Black Mariah — his photolab on wheels, where he could close the curtains and process the glass plates used in his photography business — went out to the battlefields and took photographs of the Union troops as they went about their daily routines. He stayed well away from the battles, but after the battles were over, he went out into the fields and photographed the dead soldiers. He had some photographic prints made for a viewing in Washington, and when the people came to see them in the gallery, they were shocked at the devastations: the contorted looks of the bodies, and the torn flesh, and limbs. This was just too much for the sensitivities of the populace, who viewed warring as honorable and righteous.
I have written before, and it bears repeating: "The civilians in Japan supported the Japanese war effort. Every day they went to work in factories, fields, and other efforts that contributed to the war. In this respect, the civilian population of an enemy country is as culpable as the military in continuing the war effort, and could be considered as much a military target as an airplane factory, or munitions supply depot. War is not pretty. People die in wars. It has always been this way. If people don't want to die anymore in wars, then they should find a way to prevent them, and to subdue those who have a propensity toward warring."
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