Israel Starts Ground Invasion of Gaza

At 3 o'clock EST a massive operation began by Israel against Gaza. They aim to "take care of" tunnels that pose a threat to their country. This is the first ground offensive since the fighting started a few weeks ago that was set off by murder of children.

We all know this was a gas leak waiting to ignite. I want to know, however... Do you think the spark that ignited this was taken out of proportion or was this major conflict's Ferdinand moment small for the amount of carnage that has (and is still to) come from this conflict.

 

War is always something that is excessive and taken out of proportion.

I can't completely blame Israel though. They take things too far sometimes but compared to their terrorist loving neighbors? Yeah this was going to happen one way or another. They were obviously sick of their neighbors nonchalance of dealing with terrorist threats.

Gotta love the timing of the invasion though. World is too busy throwing a hissy fit over Russia's involvement of the airliner missle shoot down and failing to do anything once again. All I know is that president Obama and the U.S have absolutely no control of foreign policy anymore. Pretty sick honestly. Back then whether right or wrong you knew the buck stops at the U.S. Now we backed ourselves out of foreign affairs and things spiral out of control.

 

Maybe I don't visit the Hall of the Elders enough, but it's weird to see you posting something 100% serious. =P

I don't think that the U.S. should be the police of the world nor should we be able to be the end all be all of international affairs. We're placing sanctions on Russia and there's not a ton more to do diplomatically. We certainly can't go to war with them or get involved militarily in Ukraine. I mean there are two super powers in the world, the U.S. and Russia. We've avoided armed conflict for years because it would lead to devastation on both sides.

I mean we've been backing each others' enemies under the table for years. It's just now that Russia is getting kinda ballsy about doing whatever it wants in spite of the UN and international community.

Not that I'm implying that you're suggesting military action, just that there's not a lot more to be done about it other than just put the diplomatic pressure on and wait them out. I'm honestly not sure what, if anything, we can do about Russia that would see an immediate effect that wouldn't just create more problems.

As far as Israel goes, they have a right to defend themselves. I can't say I'm 100% behind their ground invasion, but I do get why they're doing it and you can only have rockets fired across your borders so many times before you have to do something.

 

Putin is a thug and Obama should have torn that guy in front of the world stage already.

And of course no one serious is saying to blow up Russia. Now blow up their economy? Europe needs to man up and take real measures.

Anyway derailment aside, I can't believe the timing of the Gaza Strip invasion. It was a brilliant Machiavellian setup. Okay, okay, so it was just a fluky coincidence (military planning takes months).

You know how hard it is to find information on the details right now? Kind of just have to go with my gut feelings.

This isn't the asylum? Well not yet anyway

 

Unfortunately there are people calling for military action. Though I suspect that they are in the minority. It's like some people are just looking for us to pick a fight. =P

But yeah, I'm all for sanctions and damaging their economy until they sort their **** out.

 

I sense that will all this chaos... WW3 approaches

 

If America went to intervene, Australia and the UK would have to intervene too cause allies.
Having 3 more advanced military there could spark intimidation, making the rebels fight against us, and thus creating war.

We don't want war, we just finished Afghanistan, and we're getting closer and closer to Russia sparking another war due to the MH-17 (R.I.P. those poor souls) being shot down.

 

Yeah, Israel can be bullies at times but they also do have their share of legitimate enemies and a need to defend themselves at times. I don't know much about the current conflict since I've not really been following it.

I do have to say, however, that terrorism is never justified. Ever. Regardless of the nation's resources. Were these rockets fired at military targets or into civilian areas? Hostility against enemy military personal is warfare, but against civilian targets is terrorism. Soldiers are trained for combat and know that they are expected to face their nation's enemies and may lose their lives in the process. Civilians should never be targeted. They're not soldiers, they have nothing to do, in any real sense, with whatever conflict in which their nation is involved.

We (the U.S.) are still in Afghanistan. And we're talking about going back to Iraq (seriously, WTF?!?). The conflict in Israel is none of our business, there is absolutely no reason for us to get involved.

This actually reminds me of a quote from Jon Stewart: "There is apparently no country Republicans will not put under the protection of the United States....Well, except one."

 

I'm not condoning the actions of either side. Nor am I meaning to imply that terrorism can be committed by only one of the two factions. I'm just analyzing what I know about the situation, which isn't a lot at the moment.

I'm not for Israel's invasion nor am I totally against it. The only definite stance I can take is that there should be no U.S. involvement.