Disproportionate?

Ben Stein:

Look, if the Israelis wanted to inflict a lot of casualties from the air, they could. They have the second best air force in the world. Clearly, they are showing restraint. Three hundred dead is a lot, and every human's death is sad unless he's a terrorist, but we were killing 30,000 in a few hours in World War II and glorying in it. No news shows were showing German civilians getting fried and saying how sad it was. It was war against butchers and war is horrible, but it's war, and to defend human decency, sometimes war is necessary.

By any historic measure, Israel's response to a decade of torment is extremely restrained -- maybe too restrained. And it can stop any time the Hezbollah says they will use peaceful means to get their aims. I don't hear them saying that. What I hear is a thousand Hezbollah rockets falling on exclusively civilian targets in Eretz Israel. There's your answer about whether Israel's response is disproportionate.

Read the whole thing.

Frankly, I think the only way to fight terrorism is through disproportionate response. They suicide bomb a bus terminal? You obliterate the buildings where their leaders are thought to be staying. They rocket-attack one of your cities? You invade their sponsor states and take out those who support them.

That is the only way a western power with a conventional military force will ever win victory against terrorists.