Pugnacious pugilist in training

I've just joined The Ring boxing club in Boston. I am going to jab, cross, hook, skip, lunge, crab-walk, and spiderman push-up my way into the best shape of my life.

Quote of the day

"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."

WInston Churchill

(I found this timely quote in the comments section of the Little Green Footballs' post on the video 'Fitna'. Go watch the video while you still can.)

A fresh breath of honesty

I am pleasantly surprised to learn that Arab opinion is not unanimous in its condemnation of Israel's retaliatory actions. Ahmed Al-Jarallah, Editor in chief of the Arab Times, thinks that Israel is acting in the interests of the Arabs:

While the people of Palestine and Lebanon are paying the price of this bloody conflict, the main players, who caused this conflict, are living in peace and asking for more oil from Arab countries to support the facade of resisting Israel. With the Palestinian Authority close to collapse and the Lebanese government beginning to give up responsibility for what is happening in its territory, Saudi Arabia has been forced to come out of its diplomatic routine and indirectly hold Hezbollah responsible for what is happening Lebanon.

This war was inevitable as the Lebanese government couldn’t bring Hezbollah within its authority and make it work for the interests of Lebanon. Similarly leader of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas has been unable to rein in the Hamas Movement.

Unfortunately we must admit that in such a war the only way to get rid of these irregular phenomena is what Israel is doing. The operations of Israel in Gaza and Lebanon are in the interest of people of Arab countries and the international community.

I am pleased that there is at least one honest man in the Arab world.

Israel: virtuous and innocent

I am quite disgusted by the widespread condemnation of Israel's retaliatory strikes. These strikes are frequently characterized as "disproportionate". Actually I agree that they are disproportionate. They are disproportionately mild. A true defense would eliminate the Hezbollah threat and target the regime that sponsors Hezbollah: Iran. However, I'm glad that Israel is taking some action, however tepid it may be.

Those who wail that Israel is killing Lebanese civilians have no regard for Israeli civilians. Who should pay the price when Israel is attacked by Hezbollah or Hamas or other jihadists? Either Israel pays the price, or the nation that harbors those terrorists pays the price. Nations cannot go to war against individuals, nations can only go to war against other nations (this is why it matters what kind of nation you choose to live in). It is literally impossible for Israel to destroy Hezbollah without destroying infrastructure and civilian lives in the nation that harbors them. Either we let Israel do what is necessary to destroy Hezbollah, or we allow Hezbollah to destroy Israel. There is no middle ground.

I will grant that there are probably a lot of decent people in Lebanon who just want to work and raise their families. But sadly they have allowed a terrorist infestation in their country. And since they are unwilling or unable to remove it, Israel must. Either Israel has a right to defend itself or it does not. If it has a right to defend itself, that means it has a right to defend itself successfully - that is, to destroy its enemy. If Israel were to obey calls by the international community to show restraint in its retaliation, the party who benefits is Hezbollah. Anything less than total defeat is a victory for Hezbollah. Hezbollah knows it can hunker down, wait for the international community to condemn Israel to the point where Israel lets up its response, and then hit Israel again.

There is a lesson that must be learned in the Middle East, as Onkar Ghate writes here:

To achieve peace in the Middle East, as in any region, there is a necessary principle that every party must learn: the initiation of force is evil. And the indispensable means of teaching it is to ensure that the initiating side is defeated and punished. Decisive retaliatory force must be wielded against the aggressor. So long as one side has reason to think it will benefit from initiating force against its neighbors, war must result.

Israel and America are united in a war against a common enemy - and it isn't terrorism; terrorism is just a tactic of the enemy. The enemy has an ideology (Islamic Jihad) and an ideological center (Iran). Only the Americans and the Israelis consider this a battle worth fighting. However, these half battles that are currently being fought will not be enough to defeat this enemy. Only total war can win. This war must be fought like the world war that it is. Like in WW2, where a proud self confident America certain of its own virtue issued the following declaration to Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan: unconditionally surrender, or face extinction. We owe our freedom to the moral courage of the WW2 generation. To save civilization we need that kind of courage again.

Justice is on the side of the Israelis. There will never be peace in the Middle East until Israel and America wage a total war in self defense.

The Objective Standard

The Objective Standard is a new magazine of culture and politics from an Objectivist perspective. Their intro provides a good summary of what an Objectivist perspective is.

The Islamist threat to civilization

In a brilliant essay Amit Ghate identifies the essential strategy employed by Islamists in their quest to destroy the West: divide and conquer. We have placed our rights to self defence under the objective control of our Western governments with the understanding that government will defend us if our rights are ever threatened. However, as we saw first with the Rushdie affair and continue to see in the case of the Danish cartoonists, our political leaders are betraying their most sacred trust: they are failing to defend the rights of their disarmed citizens.

Live like you mean it

This is your life. You will not get another. We are mid performance on the grandest of stages: existence. Never forget that every moment of your life is a value you can never replace. Don't float along on the capricious waves of outrageous fortune. Make conscious choices. Choose a course that will lead to your happiness. Make your life extraordinary.

Nobody but yourself

To be nobody-but-yourself -- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting

- ee cummings