The End of Democracy

Via Billmon, I see that yet another professor has come forward to defend the killing of civilians in Lebanon, cause, well, you know... they aren't really all that innocent.

For its part, Israel is gambling that the right strategy is to make the people who elected Hamas and a government that includes Hezbollah reckon the costs of their representatives' recklessness. That is why Israel has targeted not only Hezbollah leaders and strongholds but has also bombed infrastructure that sustains daily life for everybody in Lebanon. From Israel's standpoint, this is no longer a fight with nonstate terrorists who are holding their fellow citizens hostage to their tactics. It is, rather, war between Israel and countries that are pursuing (or tolerating) violent policies endorsed (or at least accepted) by their electorates.

As Billmon notes, that's precisely the argument used by Bin Laden justifying the bombings on 9/11. And it strikes me that it's a reckless argument to be making.

Are we, the american people, not complicit for the policies of our current government? No matter that I did not vote for Bush, and do not support his policies, especially in the mideast. By Professor Noah Feldman's logic, I'm fair game, as is every other American civilian.

Don't any of these assholes think these things through before they open their stinking yaps?

I have to say that I never thought I'd live long enough to hear an American law professor make apologies for policies that callously result in the deaths of civilians.