You can commit genocide by fighting with too many ethical constraints and dragging a war out indefinitely. You can also commit genocide by fighting in a way designed to avoid winning by war.

People have been dying in shocking numbers for America obstinately perpetuating wars in this way. It has even become politically fashionable in some circles to do just that.

Some presidents have felt that it’s a sin to win by war and avoided following through when they were on the cusp of winning. We have ended up with unending conflicts that could reach genocidal proportions.

Obama did that in Syria. More than half a million died.

You can also do this if you are constantly doing virtue-signaling to your domestic critics who call themselves “antiwar”. You do it so you can tell them that you’re really “for peace”, in their distorted meaning of the phrase.

Biden and Trump have done this with their repeated ceasefires in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran. The ceasefires have compelled Israel (and sometimes America) to fight all over again for ground that had already been taken. They have also broken the momentum of our advances and enabled our enemies to get a second wind and fight on.

The death toll from these three unresolved wars has not yet been as terrible as in Syria and cannot honestly be called genocidal, not yet at least. But it is high –100,000 and counting. It risks becoming far worse unless we get over our fake virtue signaling and return to the practice of making rational ethical calculations for our wars.

The evil of virtue........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)