Should India adopt the Israel model in response to the Mumbai bombing?

[Karmadillo]

An interesting rejection of "maximum deterrence." It's worth reading the entire article.

http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/aug/01bidwai.htm

Perils of the Israel model

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Sadly, even the collapse of the Tunda story has not dampened the enthusiasm of those who are convinced that Pakistan-sponsored terrorists were responsible for Mumbai's terrible bomb blasts and that the best way of punishing their masters and to deter future terrorist violence would be to launch sharp, surgical, pinpointed military attacks on targets in Pakistan, such as terrorist training camps.

This assumes both that Pakistani official agencies were directly culpable, and that the targeted 'training camps' in 'Azad Kashmir' are fixed, permanent entities. There's no strong, leave alone conclusive, evidence for the first proposition. And Indian military personnel have repeatedly said that the 'training camps' are makeshift arrangements, which don't last long. Realistically speaking, they cannot be effective targets.

In particular, they support current Israeli actions in Lebanon and Gaza and hold that these will deter Hizbollah-and Hamas-style 'terrorists' from launching attacks on Israeli civilians. They demand that India emulate the 'Israeli model' and demonstrate its 'manhood'. Several television programmes have aired such views.

This is a recipe for disaster and for courting more insecurity and making our citizens more vulnerable to terrorist violence. Consider the following four arguments. First and foremost, Israel was wrong to invade Lebanon, and earlier, Gaza by unleashing savage attacks on non-combatant civilians. It is culpable of waging a war of aggression against Lebanon. True, Hizbollah militants earlier raided the Israeli military, and killed and abducted its soldiers. But that is not a legitimate cause for Israel's war.

Hizbollah is not a Lebanese state agency, but an independent, private militia. It is one thing to retaliate against Hizbollah with pinpointed force; quite another to invade a whole country, target its civilians and kill them, and destroy its economic infrastructure, including ports, highways, bridges and water supply. Israel did not act in self-defence. Its actions were designed to destroy a whole society, which has rebuilt itself slowly after suffering the trauma of prolonged war and Syrian interference, and which just last year staged the Cedar Revolution much acclaimed by the West.

Second, Israel is a terrible model from a legal and moral point of view. It bears the dubious distinction of being a nation in the longest violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions (for example, 242 and 338). It has the contemporary world's worst record of occupying another nation, for 39 years. Israel has brutalised the Palestinian people in the most inhuman manner conceivable.

more...

[JackNewtown]

1. Major difference: Pakistan can bomb back...

...Palestine and Lebanon can't. When is the last time Israel attacked someone who can bomb back???