One of the weaknesses in the military is that it creates absolute commands for soldiers to obey without question. Any deviation from rigid rules is punished. The entire military experience is calculated to eliminate independent and creative thinking. There is a danger that soldiers may devolve into little more than killing robots, inept if not incapable of independent judgment.
Lack of independent thinking resulted in this tragedy, in which a young Palestinian girl was needlessly shot by an Israeli captain. The captain should have disobeyed his orders in the name of common humanity and common sense. To shoot anyone, child or adult, male or female, in the back while they are retreating and not carrying anything that could be used as a weapon and have not committed any harm to anyone, demonstrates poor judgment.
Terrorists have created the conditions that resulted in this tragedy by using civilians in plain clothes, of all ages and both genders, to conduct terrorist operations, including surprise suicide bombings and other atrocities. Every Palestinian civilian is potentially a suicide bomber or else an accomplice intended to distract soldiers. There have been bombings directed at Israeli schools, marketplaces, and civilian homes, in which Israeli civilians, including children, are targeted. Terrorists want to kill all Israelis, whether they are soldiers or not. Their strategy betrays a kind of madness and is counterproductive.
Why did the captain shoot his weapon? Violence begets violence, and atrocity follows atrocity. The threads of civilization break down as people observe their neighbors, friends and loved ones getting injured or killed as a direct result of not being paranoid enough.
It was just possible that the girl was sent by terrorists in order to probe Israeli defenses and draw the soldiers out of their positions. A calculation may have been made by the terrorists that, if the girl were shot, it would hand their side a propaganda victory. Terrorists have proven themselves willing to sacrifice anyone and anything in order to achieve propaganda victories. They are aiming for the hearts and minds and do not seem to care about casualties.
Israel is a republic with proper mechanisms in place, including a free press. Therefore, I believe that the Palestinians should seek redress for their grievances through democratic, legal means, and renounce violence, in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. I believe that the Israelis would respond in kind, although patience would be required.
Violence is not the answer. Patience and understanding is the answer. The past cannot be changed. It is recorded in the history books. Everyone can read about it and judge events for themselves. Only the future can be changed. A future with peace, understanding and shared purpose is better than a future with continual conflict and violence. A future with prosperity, education, and freedom of speech is better than a future with poverty, war, and animosity.
Violence is necessary only in regimes where there is no freedom of speech, and the government is a ruthless dictatorship. An example of this would be Iran, the chief sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East.
A case in point would be the Roman conquest of Britain. The Romans committed many atrocities. They were ten times worse than the Israelis by any measure one would care to apply. However, in time, the natives accepted the Roman Peace. There were historical wrongs committed by the Romans, but the natives set those events aside and moved forward. They realized that there were advantages brought by the Romans, such as unification, order, trade, luxuries, entertainment, technology, roads, and law. The Romans were not all bad, but were better than some of the alternatives at the time, such as the various barbarian tribes, bandits, and warlords. In time, the natives came to think of themselves as Roman. Like the Romans, the Israelis are not perfect. However, the Israeli state offers many advantages. It is one of the better systems of government in the Middle East. Those who expect a perfection solution or a perfect government will always be disappointed. They will never find what they are looking for.
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