The Myth of "Proportionate Response"

Exploded:

Hugo Grotius, the 17th century jurist and father of public international law, stated in his 1625 magnum opus The Rights of War and Peace that "Most Men assign three just Causes of War, Defense, the Recovery of what's our own, and Punishment." Using Grotius' criteria, Israel's recent use of force against Hamas and Hezbollah can be considered trebly justified, given that it seeks to defend itself from enemy incursions, recover its kidnapped citizens, and ensure that such invasions are not repeated. Yet the French Foreign Ministry announced that "France deplores Israel's bombardments on a beach in the Gaza Strip, whose disproportionate character has cost the lives of several civilians and injured many others," while the European Union chided Israel for "the disproportionate use of force by Israel in Lebanon in response to attacks by Hezbollah on Israel," and Egypt claimed that "Israel's disproportionate use of power in a densely populated area contradicts international law." These criticisms shift the debate from whether a response from Israel is justified to whether Israel's current response is "proportionate," a term with a long history in international law and a term all too often abused.

It is confusing that a military operation should adhere to principles of proportionality in the first place. After all, military commanders are hardly obligated to fire as many bullets as the enemy and no more. Any confrontation between Israel and Hamas or Hezbollah will perforce be out of proportion; the former has F-16s, the latter crude rockets and suicide belts. (One recalls decades-old municipal legal rulings in the United States, now considered misguided, that a homeowner using a firearm against a knife-wielding attacker was guilty of a criminal offense due to the disproportionate force involved.) But according to generally-accepted public international law, proportionality, together with necessity, are the two limitations to the inherent national right of self-defense.

The surest sign somebody has no clue about the art of warfare is when they pull this dusty ol' Robert McNamara notion off the shelf. War is not fought under Marquis of Queensbury rules. Unfortunately for us, American politicians, being of a particularly yellow-striped and spineless sort, are particularly loath to understand this.

Want peace in Lebanon? Then let the Israelis destroy Hezbollah, and the Syrian Ba'athists too, if need be. It is war which brings peace, as when fully prosecuted it tends to settle thorny international disputes for a generation or more. Better a short war than a long "peace" marked by daily attacks against women and children.