Thought experiment
Suppose Israel would place 10.000 heavy artillery around Gaza. These guns would be controlled by a computer, which gets its input from surveillance satellites, motion detectors and radar.
Every time a Kassam rocket is launched at Israel, all 10.000 guns fire 10 High-Explosive rounds into Gaza. The computer orders it. No human intervention is involved.
The Arabs are made aware of this, are even demonstrated the system.
Now an Arab fires a Kassam rocket at Israel. Who is responsible for the Arab casualties that are the result of the computer's automated response?
And why is Israel's response any less automatic, any less drastic? And if it weren't, who would be responsible then?
posted by Unbelonger at Friday, July 07, 2006 - PermaLink
3 Comments:
I would wish they did just that , however with a culture that glorifies death the outcome would be simple , they would still fire rockets and die to get the promised 72 virgins.
Speaking of which , I think a radar in the 3 cm band is indeed used to track and trace mortars , so the system is indeed avail.
Just install it , it would save a lot of trouble and brave young Israeli soldiers that die at the moment in Gaza.
Israel would be responsible on two accounts. First it could have known that if the terrorist could stage the delivery of the missile such that those launching the missile would long be gone by the time it was fired, the retaliation would be borne by innocents (most likely opponents of the terrorists).
Second, the proportionality requirement makes no exemption for ex-ante considerations of the used resources. Why such an onslaught?
This though does not limit the culpability of the terrorist, something that sometimes is lost in the current debate.
The proportionality argument is void. An attacker, or his supporters has no right to expect proportionality if they initiate hostilities, initiate them moreover against civilians.
Dresden and Hiroshima are good examples of this.
The first objection I now have already partially answered: If an attack is launched from foreign soil (like it was from Lebanon), and Gaza can be considered as such, then it falls upon the rulers of that land to take care of its citizens, and not start hostilities, especially against a stronger neighbour. Germany WAS responsible for Russian civilian deaths, but Russia was NOT responsible for German civilian deaths.
Basically, the attackers gives up all rights. And Hamas was elected by a landslide. Now the voters have to live with the consequences of their decisions.
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