One man's solution to the current Middle Eastern crisis

The crisis in Lebanon is much in the news and on peoples mind. A spirited discussion has been going on in at least one forum I belong to. A short while ago I ran across an article on FR. What follows is more than a little simplistic. And it is couched in terms that I can only describe as brutal. But it has a ring of truth to it that I think is worthy of some note.

It also bears remembering that at the end of World War II our enemies stopped fighting not because of a cease fire or because they suddenly decided it was time to be more humanitarian but because they had been crushed. As in destroyed, smashed, utterly and completely defeated. They were no longer able to fight even if they wanted to. It was quite literally a knock down drag out fight to the bloody finish. And it bought the world a half a century of no more world wars and Europe in particular has known one of the longest stretches of relative peace in untold centuries. War is a truly horrific thing. And one of the sins of our age may be that we have tried to make civilized something that is inherently uncivilized. Maybe its time to take the gloves off and just do what needs to be done so we don’t have this hanging over the world’s head for the next 50 yrs.

On a purely personal note I spent 10 yrs in the Navy and saw a few bar fights up close. Mercifully I was only peripherally involved in one of them. But I still remember the advice I got from a 1st class Boatswains Mate named Jimmy Sandsbury on my first ship (a painfully long time ago). BM1 Sands as he was known was three days older than dirt. It was rumored he had taught Noah his knots and port and starboard. On the morning of my first liberty in a foreign port (Naples Italy), he took me aside gave me some advice which I thereafter carried with me. I will paraphrase this a bit since this is a Christian blog…

He told me that if I ever got into a fight in a bar or anywhere else that I should remember sailors don’t fight like gentlemen. He said my first punch or kick should be for the SOB’s private parts. And that then I should grab the nearest blunt object and commence to beating the ever living $*&^ out of my opponent. I was strongly advised to ignore the rule about not hitting a man when he is down. Someone knocked down in a bar room brawl was likely to get back up and hurt you if you didn’t finish the job. Sands said the subject of my wrath should be beaten until either he begged for mercy or until he was so severely beaten that there was no danger of him ever bothering me again. Words of wisdom from someone I doubt ever graduated from High School. I should also note that he said it was almost always better to walk away from a fight if I could. I never saw or heard of Sands ever being in a brawl. I am not sure if that’s because he walked away a lot, or if it’s because of the reputation he had as someone who could put a man in the hospital with his fists. Maybe it was a little of both.

The below is an article posted on Free Republic.

I once witnessed a bar fight in downtown Olongapo (Philippines) that still haunts my dreams. The fight was between a big oafish Marine and a rather soft-spoken, medium sized Latino sailor from my ship.

All evening the Marine had been trying to pick a fight with one of us and had finally set his sights on this diminutive shipmate of mine... figuring him for a safe target. When my friend refused to be goaded into a fight the Marine sucker punched him from behind on the side of the head so hard that blood instantly started to pour from this poor man's mutilated ear.

Everyone present was horrified and was prepared to absolutely murder this Marine, but my shipmate quickly turned on him and began to single-handedly back him towards a corner with a series of stinging jabs and upper cuts that gave more than a hint to a youth spent boxing in a small gym in the Bronx.

Each punch opened a cut on the Marine's startled face and by the time he had been backed completely into the corner he was blubbering for someone to stop the fight. He invoked his split lips and chipped teeth as reasons to stop the fight. He begged us to stop the fight because he could barely see through the river of blood that was pouring out of his split and swollen brows.

Nobody moved. Not one person.

The only sound in the bar was the sickening staccato sound of this sailor's lightning fast fists making contact with new areas of the Marine's head. The only sound I have heard since that was remotely similar was from the first Rocky film when Sylvester Stallone was punching sides of beef in the meat locker.

Finally the Marine's pleading turned to screams.... a high, almost womanly shriek. And still the punches continued relentlessly. Several people in the bar took a few tentative steps as though they wanted to try to break it up at that point, but hands reached out from the crowd and held them tight. I'm not ashamed to say that mine were two of the hands that held someone back.

You see, in between each blow the sailor had begun chanting a soft cadence: Say [punch] you [punch] give [punch] up [punch]... say [punch] you [punch]were [punch] wrong [punch]".

He had been repeating it to the Marine almost from the start but we only became aware of it when the typical barroom cheers had died down and we began to be sickened by the sight and sound of the carnage. This Marine stood there shrieking in the corner of the bar trying futilely to block the carefully timed punches that were cutting his head to tatters... right down to the skull in places. But he refused to say that he gave up... or that he was wrong.

Even in the delirium of his beating he believed in his heart that someone would stop the fight before he had to admit defeat. I'm sure this strategy had served him well in the past and had allowed him to continue on his career as a barroom bully.
Finally, in a wail of agony the Marine shrieked "I give up", and we gently backed the sailor away from him.

I'm sure you can guess why I have shared this story today. I'm not particularly proud to have been witness to such a bloody spectacle, and the sound of that Marine's woman-like shrieks will haunt me to my grave. But I learned something that evening that Israel had better learn for itself if it is to finally be rid of at least one of its tormentors:
This is one time an Arab aggressor must be allowed to be beaten so badly that every civilized nation will stand in horror, wanting desperately to step in and stop the carnage... but knowing that the fight will only truly be over when one side gives up and finally admits defeat. Just as every person who had ever rescued that bully from admitting defeat helped create the cowardly brute I saw that evening in the bar, every well-intentioned power that has ever stepped in and negotiated a ceasefire for an Arab aggressor has helped create the monsters we see around us today.

President Lahoud of Lebanon, a big Hezbollah supporter and a close ally of Syria, has been shrieking non-stop to the UN Security Council for the past two days to get them to force Israel into a cease fire.

Clearly he has been reading his autographed copy of 'Military Success for Dummies Arab Despots' by the late Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt. Ever since Nasser accidentally discovered the trick in '56, every subsequent Arab leader has stuck to his tried and true formula for military success:

1. Instigate a war.
2. Once the war is well underway and you are in the process of having your ass handed to you... get a few world powers to force your western opponent into a cease fire.
3. Whatever you do, don't surrender or submit to any terms dictated by your enemy. That would ruin everything! All you have to do is wait it out and eventually the world will become sickened at what is being done to your soldiers and civilian population... and will force a truce.
4. Once a truce has been called you can resume your intransigence (which probably caused the conflict in the first place), and even declare victory as your opponent leaves the field of battle. This tactic has never failed. Not once. In fact it worked so well for the Egyptians in 1973, that to this day they celebrate the Yom Kippur War - a crushing defeat at the hands of Israel - as a military victory! No kidding... it's a national holiday over there!

President Lahoud has already begun to shriek like a school girl to the UN Security Council to "Stop the violence and arrange a cease-fire, and then after that we'll be ready to discuss all matters."

Uh huh. Forgive me if I find that a tad hard to swallow. He allowed Hezbollah to take over his country. He allowed the regular Lebanese army to provide radar targeting data for the Hezbollah missile that struck the Israeli destroyer. He has turned a blind eye while Iranian and Syrian weapons, advisers and money have poured into his country. And now that his country is in ruins he wants to call it a draw. As much as it may sicken the world to stand by and watch it happen, strong hands need to hold back the weak-hearted and let the fight continue until one side finally admits unambiguous defeat.

By Freeper MBombadier