Civilians As Weapons

Great post here at TCS Daily; an excerpt:

Those who have visited any Hezbollah installation in Lebanon over the years always remark on the fact that there are families, women and children, in and around the place. "Secret" bases are usually hidden in plain site. Houses or apartment buildings become weapons storage or even operations centers. An innocent shed or garage may contain a Toyota or a missile launcher.

It seems callous to be so dismissive of the deaths of so many civilians but one must keep in mind the fact that, in a war of attrition with Israel, Israel would have to kill 60 Arabs for every Jew in order to survive. Even then, there would be a diminishing rate of returns. One Jew left, for instance, would not beat the 60 remaining Arab. The Arabs have 300 millions; there are only 5 million Jews in Israel. The Muslim world has 1.2 billions. Therefore a "proportionate response" would mean 240 Muslims would need to be killed for every Jew in Israel. All this is quite true if only we accept the theory that the Arab and Muslim world wants to annihilate Israel and the various causus belli that have been used are designed for the prosecution of a war (of annihilation) in stages. It would be easier to feel pity for the Arab mothers of their dead children if only they didn't alternately mourn and celebrate their deaths, depending on whether or not they took Jews with them.