A Philosophy of War and Conflict

[Belacqua]

 - But even in the school yard or whatever neighborhood you are in there are some rules. I’ve never seen 2 or more guys taking on one guy. I’ve also rarely seen a 10th grader taking on a 9th grader. This is considered cowardly for the 10 graders and stupid if it’s the 9th grader. There is this sense of inner justice and if this sense of inner justice is violated it is not uncommon to have an older “big-brother” or more senior student intervening to protect one or the other party and/or try to resolve the conflict in a more diplomatic manner.

 

Generally I think the rules that apply in a schoolyard or among kids in a neighborhood have to do with conformity enforcement. 

Group conformity is VERY important to kids. Once it has been determined that an individual (another student or kid from the neighborhood) falls outside the acceptable range of conformity, then he becomes fair game. All of these self-contained groups include Self-Appointed Conformity Enforcers. They think that it is their right or even their duty to let the non-conformist know that he is unacceptable to them. They think they are doing a GOOD THING by teasing and insulting him until he learns to toe the line (or moves away, or commits suicide). 

Maybe you've noticed that every time they re-boot the Spiderman franchise, they have to include a scene where Peter Parker stands up for a bullied kid and defies the Group Conformity Enforcers. Importantly, he does this BEFORE he gets his spider powers, and the scene lets us know that even without super powers he is a Good Person who defends people who are different against the Group Conformity Enforcers. 

It's a perennial issue, though. Despite the clear message of every high school movie ever made, every enclosed group gets its clique of Group Conformity Enforcers, who think they are doing a good thing by being nasty to the people who, in their view, deserve nastiness. That's not going to change. 

And the Japanese are probably the masters of such martial rules. Although I believe that their society was very archaic before WWII, I know some stuff about their martial arts and writings. One very interesting book is the Hagakure by Uamamoto Tsunemoto and the Bushido by Inazo Nitobe.

Here I think we have to be a little bit careful. Both of the books you mention were written long after the Samurai had lost their powers as a hereditary warrior class. The Samurai were converted to clerks and other less glamorous government functionaries. Inazo Nitobe wrote Bushido in English while living in America. It was first published in Philadelphia. So they may offer an attractive code for warriors, but they are a little like 19th century historical novelists writing about King Arthur's court. There's a lot of romanticizing going on. 

So what happened in the Middle East is that after WWII, the USSR actively supported all resistance groups in the Middle East who wanted to free themselves from European colonialism. Later this spirit of resistance spread to Palestine as well. Then, at some point, things like the Munich Massacre in October 1971 started happening. Someone simply decided that delivering any type of punch to your adversary was ok.

There was a lot of stuff going on. Colonialist powers supported some groups and opposed others. Recently, for example, the US opposed Assad's government in Syria and replaced him with a high-level al Qaeda operative. So the colonialist powers are happy to support resistance groups when their goals temporarily align. 

Also remember that the terrorist attacks in Palestine after the Balfour Declaration were carried out by extremist Zionist groups -- by definition colonialists. Palestinian groups replied in kind and pretty soon both sides were at it full time. The Munich attack was in retaliation for attacks on Palestinians -- which doesn't make it OK, but also means that we shouldn't see it as some kind of isolated unprovoked punch out of nowhere. Zionists had been delivering whatever kind of punch they could for decades before that point. 

I know next to nothing about Judaism but I don’t think there can be such thing in Judaism either.

Sad to say, many Zionists justify extreme violence based on their religious beliefs. Their common use of the term "Amalek" to refer to any group that stands in their way is good evidence for this. Also the maps they often show of "Greater Israel," extending from the Nile to the Euphrates, is based on a promise that (according to the Hebrew Bible) God made to Abraham. 

As for Ukraine, it has no claim to moral superiority. War is bad, all countries that want to keep this war going are bad. 

Ukraine has lost half its population, its economy is shot to hell. Russia has all kinds of problems but they're not the ones who will have trouble rebuilding once NATO walks away and lets Ukraine fall to pieces.