Being Sarcastic

Reading the editorial in today's New York Times entitled "Rules of Engagement", I couldn't avoid writing this letter:-


Your editorial ("Rules of Engagement", Mar. 8) advises that these rules defining the actions of the military in the face of danger from possible hostile forces should be "as close to mistake-proof as possible."

Perhaps the U.S. Army should look to Israel where Ariel Sharon, a former general, when faced with
hostile forces in the Gaza Strip who had been launching missiles and rockets at civilians, who had smuggled their weaponry in through tunnels via a country ostensibly at peace and who exploded themselves as human suicide bombers, decided in his wisdom to adopt a policy of disengagement.

This new rule of combat, to whit, withdrawing, assuming a defensive posture and depending on foreign diplomacy, albeit an amazing turn-of-face by this soldier veteran, may provide a surprising result.

But if the readers conclude that Sharon's disengagement wouldn't work for American troops, then why should it work for Israel?