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Subject: Operation Cast Lead - AAR by an Israeli Ethicist
swhitebull    7/21/2009 1:41:07 PM
http://www.azure.org.il/article.php?id=502 A Philosopher's After-Action Report [Jonah Goldberg, National Review] Azure has a long examination of Israel's Operation Cast Lead (a.k.a. the Gaza War) by the ethicist Asa Kasher. swhitebull - interesting piece, with lots of food for thought.
 
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battar    Private or medal   7/21/2009 3:34:15 PM
In Hebrew the term for military medal rhymes with the term for lance-corporal.  The IDF has a slang term, "lance-corporal or medal ("Tzalash or Tarash"), which means, when its dark, there's gunfire, and a figure moves towards you in the shadows you've got to make a quick decision whether to shoot or not. Option one - You don't shoot, and it turns out to be a grenade carrying terrorist, or you do shoot, and it turns out to be an unarmed pensioner. Option two - the reverse. And now we have this ethicist sitting in an armchair and talkng about the results. As for the idea of a "just war" - well, only one side is ever going to call a war "just", and the other side is going to call it "unprovoked aggression".  Depends which side you are on. So the argument is purely subjective.  
 
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jastayme3       8/24/2009 8:56:58 PM

In Hebrew the term for military medal rhymes with the term for lance-corporal.  The IDF has a slang term, "lance-corporal or medal ("Tzalash or Tarash"), which means, when its dark, there's gunfire, and a figure moves towards you in the shadows you've got to make a quick decision whether to shoot or not. Option one - You don't shoot, and it turns out to be a grenade carrying terrorist, or you do shoot, and it turns out to be an unarmed pensioner. Option two - the reverse. And now we have this ethicist sitting in an armchair and talkng about the results. As for the idea of a "just war" - well, only one side is ever going to call a war "just", and the other side is going to call it "unprovoked aggression".  Depends which side you are on. So the argument is purely subjective.  

That is a circular argument. You just said that the argument is purely subjective because people disagree about it or in other words it is subjective because it is subjective. The opinions of the two sides are tangential to whether or not a war is in fact just.
 
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