Proportionality
And its place in war
In downtown Montréal, one often sees people who suffer from a mental illness that causes them to growl in a loud, and, I am sorry to say, inhuman manner. When the person so afflicted is an otherwise healthy man, an encounter with him can be very off-putting. When, moreover, people find themselves confined with a victim of this disease, discomfort will quickly give way to terror.
Some years ago, while traveling on the Métro, I observed a scene that was, at once, both distressing and instructive. A large, broad-shouldered, growling man entered a subway car, driving a group of young people into a corner of that small, soon-to-be-sealed-off space.
From the group emerged a hero: clear-eyed, fit, and full of purpose. Without obvious violence, the hero pushed the growling man out of the car.
At that moment, I found myself filled with admiration. “The kids are OK,” I thought, “and this one, in particular, is doing the right thing.”
In the course of his eviction, the growling man fell down. Within seconds, the person who had pushed him out of the subway car began to kick him. In the blink of an eye, the gallant protector of his friends had become a bully, a villain who inflicted needless injury on a fellow human being.
I did not need a lawyer to explain this transformation to me. Neither did I have to take a course in the customs of the province of Québec with respect to vicarious self-defense and the handling of the mentally ill. Rather, like any other person of good will, I could, in this situation, easily mark the moment when necessary force gave way to gratuitous violence.
Situations encountered in war, whether by individuals, leaders, or states are rarely as simple as the aforementioned incident. In particular, the inevitable absence of the right sort of information - the famous fog of war - deprives all concerned, whether individuals, leaders, or states, of the ability to draw a sharp line between the righteous exercise of might and wanton cruelty. Likewise, in the moments in which people must make difficult decisions, they will, in all likelihood, suffer greatly from lack of sleep and too much simulation.
This is not to say that these difficult, time-constrained, decisions ought to be made by well-rested, folks sitting in tents, bunkers, or offices. While better able to engage in cold and complicated calculation, such people will invariably lack the ad hoc knowledge, let alone the “skin in the game,” possessed by “the man on the spot.” To put things another way, the distant observer, thinking abstract thoughts between cups of freshly-brewed coffee, ought to temper his judgement of every particular case, whether large or small, with an acute appreciation of his own inescapable ignorance.
For further reading:
To subscribe, support, or share:
I don’t think your implied analogy with Israel re: proportionality is apt. Here is a better one, I think: the growling guy who came onto the train to intimidate people is one of a number of such men who have been repeatedly harassing this group of passengers and sometimes violently attack them (let’s say this has been going on since at least the early 1900s, give or take). When the brave passenger pushes the attacker outside the car, he then notices the attacker’s comrades are also outside waiting for their turn. The brave passenger then pulverizes the downed attacker both to permanently disable him from future attacks and also to send a clear message to his gang that they will suffer the same fate if they try to do so themselves.
Sir.
With respect and regards,
—- The Subway——
If the growling man gets back up..
or
Perhaps he needs to be discouraged from returning to the Metro… or bothering people..
——Meanwhile in War——
But what really happened was the Kabul gate. In fact the Kabul gate is the standard for about 2 decades. The subordinate made the mistake, which clearly haunts him, which always will, of not taking the shot.
Instead he asked his chain for permission to shoot the positively identified suicide bomber. The answer from a named LTC USMC was “I can’t make that decision.”
“Who can?”
“I don’t know, let me get back to you.”
BOOM.
13 US KIA.
One can tell the USMC SGT will be haunted.
I doubt the USMC LTC will.
I’ve seen this happen with a less tragic ending. Repeatedly.
Luck of the draw.
Also, people didn’t freeze.
Well, not everyone.
No. They acted.
Now you are a man of good heart and character. An Honest Man. So the below doesn’t apply to you >>>
>> But what perhaps should concern not you, but some of the readers, is that… people who want to be able to face the mirror, people who don’t want to let others down, and yes want to live- will stop asking permission.
Or begging forgiveness.
… or subordinating themselves to gaslighting, aka training, aka JAG briefs, aka … LoAC. So far such people are ignored, or stared down. But that may not remain an option longer.
The ones who act are now and for a generation not only the leaders, but the ones in charge. The ones with the power, because they’re trusted. The Gaslighters aren’t.<<<
To return to Honest Men.
It’s FIGHT
FLIGHT
Or if Gaslit by Rules of Engagement, LoAC, the rest..
FREEZE. Freeze is as likely this entire century as Fight.
It’s the worst possible choice, because it’s not a choice.
Confusion to our enemies.
Confusion to our…soldiers?
= FREEZE
The end result of all this is Confusion, of course in reality the rules change daily, this is IF they ever made sense… is confusion to our soldiers- so doing nothing is the default.
“I don’t want to go to jail.”
I have heard repeatedly.
Don’t blame them.
Now this can be gotten away with when it’s the small, colonial outpost, although it’s rough on the marines and soldiers there…
Under pressure, anything near peer conflict it’s collapse.
So the results so far are FREEZE, although I’m hearing of Flight.
Entire elite groups, BTW. Freezing, or extracting.
But it’s worse. This horrific error wasn’t made by honest men safe from harm,
>>>it was made by people who knew better and don’t care. They know.
We know they knew, they know.
They know that we know they knowingly sold us out.
So we’re looking at each other<<
And now the rest of you know.
Again I have the greatest respect and regard for you.
But be aware ~ you’re becoming confused. An honest confusion.
You are an honest man.
But confusion is the deadliest enemy.