Proportionality in War: Israel and Gaza

Shmuel Rosner has an interesting article discussing proportionality in war, and Israel's objectives in Gaza.

Rosner contends, "No reasonable, moderately compassionate human being can ignore the suffering of Gazans under Israeli attacks. But such is the tricky nature of modern warfare: How do we measure proportionality without reducing the concept to an impossibly pedantic tit-for-tat?"

The trickiness involved in proportionality comes from the original 1907 Hague Convention language: "a state is legally allowed to unilaterally defend itself and right a wrong provided the response is proportional to the injury suffered. The response must also be immediate and necessary, refrain from targeting civilians, and require only enough force to reinstate the status quo ante."


An Aside
When thinking about proportionality, I am always reminded of the Vietnam War. Defense Secretary McNamara and General Westmoreland's strategy against the North Vietnamese Army led to escalating violence, instead of ending the conflict. Nixon's Operations Linebacker I and II hit the North Vietnamese with overwhelming force, which allowed for the US to pull out.

The conflict ended with US failure, and left the Vietnamese to fight regional wars against Cambodia and China.

Parallels to Israel and Gaza? Not really.