[My leg is still killing me, I hope not literally, and sitting at my desk is excruciating, but I have to post this, truncated though it may be.]
The President should not cave to the “Think of the Children!” lobby that wants the United States to send aid to a rogue, terrorist state that is also the enemy of a just combatant the U.S. is supporting. It seems that he is. That is asinine and cowardly.
If children are starving in Gaza, the Gazans, and specifically Hamas, are responsible. Not Israel. Not the United States. The mission in warfare is to win the war, and one does not win a war by making warfare less unpleasant for the enemy. Frankly, it astounds me that I, or anyone, should have to make this point.
The last time the United States won a war (I do not count Grenada) was World War II. The Pentagon did not allow the publication of photographs of dead babies and malnourished Japanese and German children for exactly the reason we are seeing now, and have seen many times since 1945. War is ugly, and winning a war requires acts that in any other context are rightly regarded as immoral and unethical. This what a professional military is for: it (theoretically) doesn’t become sentimental about the necessities of warfare.
[Footnote: This was one of my late father’s objections to “Saving Private Ryan.” He said it was an insult to George Marshall and a deliberate effort to confuse the public to claim that the General would feel obligated to reduce the sacrifice of any single family while his army’s mission was to win a war.]
Israel has to eliminate Hamas and the other genocidal forces among the Palestinian people now, or resign itself to October 7-style slaughters recurring in the future, in perpetuity. Doing the latter would be governing malpractice. The best outcome for the Gazans, including Gazan children, is for the war to end as soon as possible, and that must be though an unconditional surrender. The craven (and, almost certainly, anti-Semitic) declarations by France and more recently the United Kingdom in the direction of recognizing a Palestinian state directly validates terrorism as an anti-Israel tactic, and, by extension, terrorism in general.
While President Trump’s caving to the tearful “Think of the children!” chorus regarding the war in Gaza doesn’t do that level of damage, it undermines Israel, makes it easier for Hamas to resist, and is therefore ethically incoherent. I never expect Donald Trump to dazzle with ethical analysis (since he is incapable of it), but this is a particularly disheartening example of the mistakes the deficit leads him into.
You can’t win a war by minimizing the suffering warfare causes. The most ethical war is the one that is over the soonest. All of the pain and destruction caused by a war is the responsibility of the nation that started it.
Ethics Alarms 
It is high time for a US-IDF combined military force to occupy Gaza, establish martial law, root out the remains of Hamas, and, for God’s sake, feed the kids.
Hamas is a terrorist organization. It attacked our best democratic ally in the Mideast. That ally needs our help in bringing that situation under control. We proved it can be done on a large scale in Europe and Asia in the middle of the last century; we can do it again on this lesser scale.
The only thing lacking is that most critical element for projecting military power, political will.
To say, let the kids starve because Hamas started this is wrong, if we truly believe human life is precious.
To say, it’s not our fight, we’re America, is wrong, if we truly believe in the golden rule.
To say there is little or nothing we can do is voluntary blindness.
To ask about or demand a Palestinian State is premature. Once peace is obtained, not through negotiation but established through force, once ordinary people again have some hope for their future, once terrorists are thoroughly repressed, once kids are fed, then it will be time for consideration of a Palestinian State (which, of course, should exist, even as after WWII there were German and Japanese States).
Ultimately, political will, in countries like the United States, comes from the people. But, it is incumbent upon our leaders to foster and promote that will. And it is incumbent upon those of us who think clearly, to foster and help direct that political will as well.
We are a great nation, perhaps the greatest in the world. But, not when we turn our backs on problems we can and should take the lead in resolving.
I don’t know about that. Would American forces really be necessary, or would they just be there showing support for Israel? How many American troops lost to ambushes, suicide bombers, etc. would be acceptable for staging such a demonstration?
I substantially agree. But the Golden Rule has no application to warfare. Ever.
I read a story in the WSJ about the aid that Israel has been sending to Gaza.
The UN refuses to deliver it with the Israelis escorting them, so there are literally thousands of tons of food sitting in the sun in Gaza.
A lot of this food ends up getting sold in market places at inflated prices, with Hamas pocketing most of the money. And we know what they’ll do with that money.
Israel has delivered a huge amount of aid to Gaza since Oct 7, and Hamas has ensured that much of it never gets to the people. The food crisis is something that has been manufactured by Hamas for their benefit. Sadly it appears to be working.
I don’t know what the solution is but perhaps someone needs to force one.
. . . and now your homework assignment is to go watch the Star Trek (TOS) episode “A Taste of Armageddon”.
–Dwayne
it seems an awful lot of people need to watch Patton and read some of his quotes regarding war.
Open the Egyptian border. Create a tent city for a few months. No one gets across the border without being searched. If you want food go there. Anyone left behind will be Hamas. Then you can more cleanly mop them up. Then let everyone back in.
It seems that all of the decisions that are being made suggests that any government involved finds more advantage in the conflict continuing than being finished.
It is suspicious when you never see adults in the region looking emaciated. NY Times front-page image of emaciated Gaza toddler sparks backlash, then an editors’ note – Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Define War and define winning.
We handily won the 1991 Iraq “war” according to the objectives outlined.
We handily won the 2003 Iraq “war”. We didn’t, however, suppress the follow on insurgency – however, and our military is still present, Iraq is in a far better state than it was before.
We handily won the Afghan war on the same terms – their insurgency left to essentially what the way the Philippines were when we won the Spanish American War – and that pacified over time – as would Afghanistan over time.
We haven’t won the Korean war. Of course we haven’t lost it yet either.
Messy thing defining war and defining winning.