Brad replied
>>No. It says that Justin's full of bullshit. To start a war you are
>>going to lose is always bad. To start a war you are going to win is
>>usually bad--it needs to be a very, very *just* war to be in any
>>sense justifiable.
>
Dear Brad,
Consider for a moment that your usual position -- ex-post-facto commentator on world affairs -- is not the situation most people who fight wars find themselves in. I don't think that most people who start wars know that they're going to lose or win. Did we know we were going to lose Viet Nam? Absolutely not. Did we know we were going to lose Iraq? No.
The Palestinians, so far as I can see, are fighting against an occupying, racist, genocidal force. I don't think they feel they have a "choice" about fighting or not fighting. I think if I were living in Palestine, I would either leave or fight. I don't think they will win in the usual sense; but I think they will win in the end.
I understand that your education and your experience have prepared you for the game of realpolitic and that you have played it well enough to have joined the governing elite of this country, but don't mistake that game for a real historical understanding, a set of principles, or a conscience.
Joanna