Thomas wrote:thethinkfactory wrote:When are, if ever, pre-emptive strikes justified?
In principle, it's impossible to draw any clear line. In practice, the only specific example I can think of is Israel in the run-up to the six-day war. When Israel attacked, the armed forces of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria were mobilized, on their way to the Israeli border, and outnumbering the Israelis by far (if I am correctly informed). In this situation, no reasonable person could demand that Israel wait until the best moment for her enemies to attack.
If I recall correctly, Israel had really great intellegence that the Arabs were getting ready to strike, and mobilized everyone and everything. Then one of the smaller Arab units got out of postion and crossed some invisible line in the sand and shot something inconsequential, which did happen to belong to the Israelis. Therefore the Israelis were merely responding to yet another Arab attack. It's just that they took a page out of the Joe Paterno's play book, "The best defense is a good offense." and the Israelis cleaned house, almost.
Kelly
