Why Video Games Were Made

Call me crazy, call me anti-Semite, but at this point, I really don’t think this whole Israel-Lebanon thing has anything to do with abducted soldiers or anything.  That is purely an excuse for whatever plan Israel has in mind, and it’s not even a particularly good one.  

And sure, maybe Israel really is so totally stupid that it’s willing to do this kind of dumb, dumb thing over two soldiers and whatever; but I doubt it.  This seems much more like a much less dumb (though still dumb) maneuver that will surely bring about more danger for them than anything they’re preventing.  Little dogs like to show how loud they bark, and Israel keeps acting like they’ve got something to prove.  And maybe attacking weaker foes makes them feel good, but I really don’t see how this is good for them.  Especially as history has shown that nobody likes to be pushed around and it almost always makes things worse in the long run.  Brute force will almost always backfire.  The secret to winning isn’t just about attacking; it’s about knowing when to stop.

And I don’t know much about Israeli history, relatively speaking, but I do know that everything I’ve seen is exactly what I’d do if I was playing some Civilization III style video game and had no qualms about winning at all costs.  (Though I only dream of a game which was complex enough for that.  I’d never have time to blog!)  But even still, I’d have played it better than them and wouldn’t have made all the serious miscalculations that they have.

In fact, I once did play Civ III as Israel, and quit after a few hours.  It just wasn’t worth it and was much too difficult.  Germany, now that’s a good country to conquer from, especially if you can wipe-out France early.  Russia wasn’t bad either.  And I once did wonders with Spain, believe it or not; also having wiped-out France early (it’s always in the way).  But Israel just wasn’t worth it.  And frankly, I can’t figure out how that’s different in real life either.

Overall, the whole mess smacks of powerful, but stupid people who can’t admit that they’re wrong and refuse to backdown.  Not just on the Israel side, but all over.  They insist that violence is the answer and they refuse to understand that the other side feels the exact same way.  My kids used to be like that when they were younger.  If only you can just do that final push to make them back down, they’d tell themselves, the other side will learn their lesson and give-in.  And they are totally dumbfounded when their opponent continues to act just like how they would be.  Funny how everyone’s really the same inside.