"A Lesson To Be Learned"
When I was in the Navy, I once witnessed a bar fight in downtown Olongapo
(Philippines) that still haunts my dreams. The fight was between a big
oafish bar bully and a rather soft-spoken, medium sized Latino sailor from
my ship.
All evening the bully had been trying to pick a fight with one of us and
had finally set his sights on this diminutive shipmate of mine... figuring
him for a safe target. When my friend refused to be goaded into a fight
the moron sucker punched him from behind on the side of the head so hard
that blood instantly started to pour from this poor man's mutilated ear.
Everyone present was horrified and was prepared to absolutely murder this
guy, but my shipmate quickly turned on him and began to single-handed
back him towards a corner with a series of stinging jabs and upper cuts
that gave more than a hint to a youth spent boxing in a small gym in the
Bronx.
Each punch opened a cut on the bully's startled face and by the time he
had been backed completely into the corner he was blubbering for someone
to stop the fight. He invoked his split lips and chipped teeth as reasons
to stop the fight. He begged us to stop the fight because he could barely
see through the river of blood that was pouring out of his split and
swollen brows.
Nobody moved. Not one person.
The only sound in the bar was the sickening staccato sound of this
sailor's lightning fast fists making contact with new areas of the guy's
head. The only sound I have heard since that was remotely similar was
from the first Rocky film when Sylvester Stallone was punching sides of
beef in the meat locker.
Finally the bully's pleading turned to screams.... a high, almost womanly
shriek. And still the punches continued relentlessly.
Several people in the bar took a few tentative steps as though they wanted
to try to break it up at that point, but hands reached out from the crowd
and held them tight. I'm not ashamed to say that mine were two of the
hands that held someone back.
You see, in between each blow the sailor had begun chanting a soft
cadence: "Say [punch] you [punch] give [punch] up [punch]... say [punch]
you [punch] were [punch] wrong [punch]".
He had been repeating it to the bully almost from the start but we only
became aware of it when the typical barroom cheers had died down and we
began to be sickened by the sight and sound of the carnage.
This coward stood there shrieking in the corner of the bar trying futilely
to block the carefully timed punches that were cutting his head to
tatters.. right down to the skull in places. But he refused to say that he
gave up... or that he was wrong.
Even in the delirium of his beating he believed in his heart that someone
would stop the fight before he had to admit defeat. I'm sure this
strategy had served him well in the past and had allowed him to continue
on his career as a barroom bully.
Finally, in a wail of agony the coward shrieked "I give up", and we
gently backed the sailor away from him.
I'm sure you can guess why I have shared this story today.
I'm not particularly proud to have been witness to such a bloody
spectacle, and the sound of that bully's woman-like shrieks will haunt me
to my grave. But I learned something that evening that Israel had better
learn for itself if it is to finally be rid of at least one of its tormentors:
This is one time an Arab aggressor must be allowed to be beaten so badly
that every civilized nation will stand in horror, wanting desperately to
step in and stop the carnage... but knowing that the fight will only truly
be over when one side gives up and finally admits defeat.
Just as every person who had ever rescued that bully from admitting defeat
helped create the cowardly brute I saw that evening in the bar, every
well-intentioned power that has ever stepped in and negotiated a ceasefire
for an Arab aggressor has helped create the monsters we see around us
today.
President Lahoud of Lebanon, a big Hezbollah supporter and a close ally of
Syria, has been shrieking non-stop to the UN Security Council for the past
two days to get them to force Israel into a cease fire.
Clearly he has been reading his autographed copy of 'Military Success for
Dummies Arab Despots' by the late Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt. Ever since
Nasser accidentally discovered the trick in '56, every subsequent Arab
leader has stuck to his tried and true formula for military success:
Instigate a war.
Once the war is well underway and you are in the process of having your
ass handed to you... get a few world powers to force your western opponent
into a cease fire.
Whatever you do, don't surrender or submit to any terms dictated by your
enemy. That would ruin everything! All you have to do is wait it out and
eventually the world will become sickened at what is being done to your
soldiers and civilian population... and will force a truce.
Once a truce has been called you can resume your intransigence (which
probably caused the conflict in the first place), and even declare victory
as your opponent leaves the field of battle.
This tactic has never failed. Not once.
In fact it worked so will for the Egyptians in 1973, that to this day they
celebrate the Yom Kippur War - a crushing defeat at the hands of Israel -
as a military victory! No kidding... it's a national holiday over there!
President Lahoud has already begun to shriek like a school girl to the
UN Security Council to "Stop the violence and arrange a cease-fire, and
then after that we'll be ready to discuss all matters."
Uh huh. Forgive me if I find that a tad hard to swallow. He allowed
Hezbollah to take over his country. He allowed the regular Lebanese
army to provide radar targeting data for the Hezbollah missile that
struck the Israeli destroyer He has turned a blind eye while Iranian
and Syrian weapons, advisers and money have poured into his country.
And now that his country is in ruins he wants to call it a draw.
As much as it may sicken the world to stand by and watch it happen,
strong hands need to hold back the weak-hearted and let the fight
continue until one side finally admits unambiguous defeat.
Forwarded by
Dan Sorkin
"The world is a dangerous place to live
not because of the people who are evil,
but because of the people who don't do
anything about it."
-- Albert Einstein
