War and Rumors of War

***More politics. Book content coming as well. Cross posted to RedState.***

To partially borrow a facile and silly phrase from a bumper sticker, if recent events in the Middle East don’t make you nervous you’re not paying attention.

Who among us feels comfortable with the possibility of a regional war in the Middle East? Who doesn’t worry that it might spill out or cascade into something different? We are talking about the potential use of nuclear and chemical weapons. Do the leaders of Syria and Iran strike you as reasonable?

There will be, and already have been, a lot of calls for nuance, moderation, restraint, and every other kind of diplo-speak. As a a student of foreign policy and international relations I understand and can, in some cases, respect this response.

And I know there are people with legitimate concerns about the impact of Israel’s actions on the development of democracy in Lebanon and the wider War on Terror.

But let me just say this: I support Israel. Period. Full stop. End of story.

For more, see below.

I know I will be accused of extremism. I know I will be criticized for not seeing the big picture. I know I will be viewed as just another conservative who makes everything black and white when gray is the color of reality.

Paleo-cons and libertarians and liberals might call me a neo-con with dual loyalties or perhaps a fundamentalist Christian with Biblical end times fantasies.

But the blatant fact of the matter is that Israel is a democratic country in a sea of totalitarianism. It is an outpost of civilization in a swamp of barbarism. It heroically defends its right to exist in a region full of countries whose goal is to wipe it off the map. It is the good guy in a world full of bad guys.

Is this simplistic? Perhaps. Unfair? Maybe. But if people are trying to kill you the proper response is to kill them before they succeed. Is there a role for diplomacy and compromise? Sure. Has that gotten Israel very far? Not by my count.

Israel’s enemies believe that they have the right to use terror and war as a legitimate political strategy. This is not acceptable. People across the globe seam to believe that Israel must constantly refrain from responding to this fundamental attack on its existence; that it must always turn the other cheek. Restraint, moderation, negotiations, agreements, diplomacy – on and on the calls go out.

For reasons ranging from legitimate fears of a larger war to anti-Semitic drivel the world asks Israel to just live with its intolerable position. Let’s talk it out; work through it; etc. As I noted above, I may understand some of the more intelligent arguments in this line of thinking but in my gut I say: screw that! Survival and sovereignty come first.

There is a point at which compromise and negotiation must give way to the defense of your sovereign nation; to the violent assertion that you have just plain had enough. When one of the political parties from an adjoining nation feels free to invade your territory and kill people, I think that point has come. If this was anywhere else in the world I am not sure we would be having this discussion.

If you are looking for nuanced theories of international relations, or savvy strategies for how we might avoid a wider war or advance the global war on terror, this ain’t it.

The point of this little rant is to say that I support Israel. No qualifications. No footnotes or escape clauses. And frankly I don’t think the choice is that hard. I stand with them because we are defending the same civilization and are fighting the same battles.

And by the way, I wouldn’t bet against them.