Big Lizards has a great post that explains 1) why people keep saying Israel’s response to Hezbolah has been “disproportionate” and 2) why the “criminal justice” versus “war” argument hasn’t flown with the left.

It’s great. Go read the whole thing.

Here’s a tiny taste:

And just now, the answer I’d been seeking struck me like a load of hay: those critics squealing about Israel’s “disproportionate” response think war is how Israel “punishes” the Arabs.

All of a sudden, other paralogical incongruities fell into place: the Left believes war is not waged in order to gain national-security advantages for one’s country; they see it entirely as an extension of the criminal justice system… a tit-for-tat revenge taken against countries that have criminally assaulted one’s own. Thus, the Left cannot even understand the conservative argument that terrorism “cannot be defeated by a criminal-justice response but must be treated as an act of war.”

To them, all war is a criminal-justice program. Why should the war on jihadi terrorism be any different?