ScI-SRAELIfi

October 5, 2006 - 9:56 PM by

battlestar galactica
Brian Blum provides a synopsis of the American television series Battlestar Galactica (the new one, not the 1970′s original), and makes the case that it is an allegory for the West’s attempts to deal with jihadist enemies.

A clip:

The show – while clearly fictional and intended for entertainment – asks tough questions that are particularly relevant and “in your face” to someone such as myself, living here in the gritty reality of the Middle East.

What if terrorists, or states that sponsor terror, get their hands on weapons of mass destruction?

What if the “normal” assumptions about the power of détente to constrain both sides don’t apply? We’ve already received a taste of that in the past summer’s war between Israel and Hezbollah. What if that had been a nuclear conflict?

What if our standard, soothing Western logic about the sanctity of life is irrelevant to our enemies, such that they would be willing to launch a nuclear attack to annihilate anyone with whom they disagreed because they believed it was part of God’s plan? Is surrender or cooperation ever possible with such a jihadi mentality?

When you live in a tiny country that is the subject of daily threats of total annihilation from a near-nuclear neighbor, and have lived through a punishing barrage of more than 4,000 missiles in 32 days, the questions posed by Battlestar Galactica can sometimes feel too close for comfort.

Tags: • Category: A New Reality, General, Politics, Pop Culture 

Comments

One Comment on ScI-SRAELIfi

  1. David on Fri, Oct 6th 2006 12:57 AM

    2. It has nothing to do with Western Values. It is the rejection or evasion of Western Values that is allowing Islamic Totalitarianism to endure and has plunged the civilized nations of the world into such a long drawn out situation.

    This weakness is the result of the embrace of the Augustinian based so-called “Just War Theory”.

    It is taught in American Army Staff Colleges via the text book written by Michael Walzer called “Just and Unjust Wars”, 3rd edition.

    “Ethics” in lines such as:…. if saving [enemy] civilian lives means risking soldiers’ lives, the risk MUST be accepted…….

    This is directly contrary to ethic of the Civil War’s greatest General Sherman and would enrage former World War 2 commanding generals such as Curtis LeMay.

    According to the JWT, the German people would be considered “innocent” and not to blame for the NAZI party rise to power and the consequent evils. According to the JWT, the bombing of German civilians and civilian targets during WW2 would not have been “legal” and the lives of such enemy civilians would have been considered more important that that of the Allied soldiers.

    This is appalling – as is all self-sacrifice and is causing America and Israel to lose this fight in that it is not ending but encouraging these Islamic entities.

    The latest intelligence report by 16 American agencies is a stark illustration.

    A group of rabbis, following the 34 day Lebanon fiasco, have rightly stood up and criticized the actions of the Israeli government as being contrary to the Jewish way of battle.

    It was this same weakness that caused Israel to sign up to Oslo, force fellow Jews from their homes out of Gaza.

    I am not religious radical – I stand firm for the same values that enabled the State of Israel to be built and flourish and DEFEND itself. It is called Zionist values, and these have been essentially rejected.

    Zionism is the physical and natural result of Judaism. This is why those who are against Israel are also Jew-haters. Israel cannot be separated from Judaism.

    PS: End of my rant! Thank you.

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