Our friend from Dublin, Ireland, Tom Carew, asks some basic questions about proportionality.

In WW II, the total German dead were 10.82% of the population, and the much lower Japanese rate was 3.61%. But the UK lost 0.94% and the USA 0.32%. Were the Allied defenders of freedom "dis—proportionate"?

What moral or military or historical logic suggests to Chirac and Putin that Israel is "disproportionate"? Since when is the aggressor entitled to suffer only the same losses as the defender ? Did De Gaulle or Stalin make that complaint in, or after, WW II ?

A Just War is not for revenge or reprisal, but to eliminate a deadly threat. The Fanatical Jihadi Fringe is such a threat, and for other Arabs and Muslims as well. The "proportionate" casualties they take are whatever it takes to conquer them thoroughly, and remove their aggressive capacity for good.

Our hopes and prayers are with the "Armed Democrats" of the IDF, on land, sea and air, on whose courage, determination, and skills not only the people of Israel depend, but all those who are, or who seek to be, truly free, including the majority in Lebanon.

Yours etc,

Tom Carew