I propose that Israel firebomb Damascus and Tehran. For you UAT grads, those are the capitals of Syria and Iran respectively. A firebomb is one that sets the whole countryside on fire, its purpose being to inflict as many causalities as possible (as opposed to taking out a specific building). We used these bombs a extensively in WWII.

Note: The image at the right has been stolen from IMAO. This blog was founded on an essay calling for the United States to Nuke the Moon, based on similar reasoning to the position laid out below. You might want to give that a read.

Consider when Chechen rebels took hostages in a theater in Russia. President Vladimir Putin ordered a chemical gas attack and all inside were killed. The rebels, who are Muslim extremists and just a different brand of al'Qaeda, got the message. Russia has been pretty much left alone by the West-hating Islmofascists. The same with Red China, the terrorists have left them alone. Granted, since al'Qaeda is arguably more communist than Muslim, it could be a kinship, but these guys seem to hate everybody. They don't mess with Russia and China, because they are afraid of what will happen to them.

Consider the current war going on in the Middle East. Israel is not at war with Lebanon, it is at war in Lebanon. Israel is actually fighting Iranians and Iranian weapons, Syrians and Syrian weapons. Consider also, the Vietnam and Korean wars where our true enemy was Russia and China, yet we allowed other countries to play as proxies. That same scenario is playing out now, North Korea is a proxy for China. Lebanon is a proxy for Iran. In the elder two wars, by not actively engaging the true enemy we simply prolonged the conflict (ie it is still going on) and condemned large sections of the globe to live under communist oppression.

Now consider the Bush Doctrine which says that any nation that harbors terrorists, aids terrorists, funds terrorists and doesn't toe a line we draw in trying to kill terrorists, that nation will be considered to be the same as the terrorists.

Now consider the populations of both Iran and Syria. While the majority are not actively trying to kill off Israel, they are supportive of the effort. They are also enablers of their governments efforts to fund Hezbollah and Hamas.

Follow the chain. The terrorists will only stop trying to kill Israel when they run out of bombs, missiles and kids to strap dynamite to. They will run out of these ingredients when the sponsor states stop sending them in. The sponsor states (Syria, Iran, the House of Saud, Egypt…) will only stop when their populace forces them to. They can force them by making these states physically enable to fund terrorism (they run out of money), or by getting pissed off enough to have an uprising. We can only “convince” the populace to take such control of their countries by, well, putting the fear of the Lord in them.

Hence, we¹ should firebomb Damascus and Tehran. The people of Israel are being shelled everyday; I say it is time some of the people paying for the bombs feel them as well. I would also claim that each side deserves the term “innocent” equally.

Doubters would say that Israel taking such an offensive action would send the entire Middle East into an all out war. How, exactly, would that be any different than what we have now, except everybody admitting to the the reality? Israel is fighting everybody, it is just not being done in the open. I prefer calling a spade a spade.

Other critics would say that we would be deliberately targeting civilians and therefore dropping to the level of the terrorists. Targeting civilians has been the premier military tactic since just after the Garden. This notion of trying to protect everybody not in uniform, as if by not getting on the field the spectators were not part of the game, is a recent invention. The difference between us and the terrorists lies in that the terrorists do no identify themselves and hide amongst the civilians. We wear uniforms, have flags on the side of our planes and make sure everybody knows who we are, where we're going (with the tanks I mean) and why we're doing it.

By the way, I would probably give the civilians of these two cities a week's notice to see if they might have enough foresight to reverse their nation's course before the bombing began. Surely they would have reason to believe Israel if they said they were going to start bombing next Saturday.

Addendum: I can already see Buzz replying that the people of Tehran and Damascus do not have enough power to change the minds of their leaders. I think they do, but you may be right that they do not have the power in a short period of time like that. However, in about a week after my plan kicks in, they'll all be dead and I'll feel better anyway.

1When I say we, I mean the U.S. and Israel. The Arabic world views us as conjoined twins ergo the terrorists see us as conjoined evil twins. Israel's war is our war.