Colombia and Israel

I watched a documentary today on the History Channel about the hunting and killing of Pablo Escobar, the boss of the Medallin drug cartel in Colombia. What impressed me was that it would have taken longer and been more bloody if not for the anti-Escobar militia called Los PEPEs, organized by survivors and victims of the drug kingpin. There was quite a bit of squeamishness about this group's activities because they went after Escobar using his own methods, killing his associates and bombing his properties. They were labelled a right-wing killing squad and Americans distanced themselves from them, but they were highly effective, because they took the term "war on drugs" literally, and went after the cartel the way the U.S. has gone after Saddam and al Qaeda, except without so many restraints. They made it unsafe to be part of Escobar's organization just as he had made it unsafe to be a judge or anti-drug cop in Colombia.

I'm sure that civil libertarians would be appalled by the refusal of Los PEPEs to attack the cartel through the "rule of law," but it occurs to me that, like the terrorists in Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda and the rest, the way the Medallin cartel operated was to destroy the rule of law itself. When evil becomes so extreme that police, judges and lawyers are unsafe, there is no rule of law. That is the very problem that Iraq is struggling with and the reason why the Palestinians have been unable to establish a decent government. Every free society must have the rule of law, but recognize that there will always be some who defy it and struggle against it. If those who fight against the rule of law become numerous or well enough organized that they can substantially weaken the government and criminal law enforcement, the situation changes from one of law enforcement and becomes one of warfare, because the state is fighting for its life.

That brings up the current efforts of Israel to root out and destroy Hezbollah, whose number one goal is the total destruction of the Jewish state. Lebanon has basically become a hostage state to Syria with the backing of Iran. Its secondary goal is the establishment of an Islamist regime throughout the Middle East, which is why Iran is supporting it with funds, weapons and training. Syria is playing a fool's game by supporting such a group, siding with the tiger in hopes that it will be killed and eaten last. However, nobody should be so silly as to believe that the Mullahs and Ahmadinejad don't mean it when they talk about nuking Israel.

Hezbollah deliberately declared war on Israel by violating its borders, killing it soldiers and kidnapping two more. War is not limited by any law except the self-restraint of the opponents, nor should it be, given the stakes. The Geneva Accords were and are a good thing, but their main mechanism is the self-interest of the signatory states. It gives them some assurance that, in war, their own troops will be protected against inhumane treatment. This doesn't really apply against a non-state enemy like Hezbollah, which uses civilians as shields and uses the inevitable deaths to influence public opinion. What can any civilized nation do against such tactics except to charge such deaths to the terrorists who use them?

While free democracies should take care to avoid tactics which will dehumanize its own troops beyond rehabilitation, I think that the only way to fight those who place themselves beyond the rule of law is to go there and wipe them out.

Bernard Lewis warns about the belief of some leaders in Iraq that August 22 will mark the return of the Mahdi, the 12th or Hiddem Imam, and that day will signal the beginning of an Islamic Armageddon, the end of the world. When an enemy is governed by extremes such as this, the only way we can hope to deal with him is to either convince him that he's wrong or destroy him. I believe in the power of God to change men's hearts, but it seems to me that the chances of persuading Mr. Ahmadinejad that his religion is false is extremely remote. He sees our rule of law as an abomination. Therefore, he sees no moral obstacles to murdering Westerners who refuse to submit to Islam. Thus, the situation is similar to that of dealing with the drug cartels. Before we can apply our laws, we have to first assure our survival, and so does Israel.