.... before you provoke or start one.

Let's take the Hezbollah detonating pagers and, it appears, now HTs as well.  People are trying to run a scare-op that the batteries exploded due to some firmware change.  No.  First most pagers run on a single AA battery because they're very low power as they do not transmit (the reason Hezbollah went to them in the first place; its very easy to "find" someone who is transmitting all the time, such as a cellphone.)  Those were clearly detonations, not fires, and thus the devices were tampered with.

Want my bet on how?  A "front company" that the other side (Mossad, basically) set up managed to bait Hezbollah on their orders with an "unbelievably good" price.  You know the old adage about something that's too good to be true?  It was; the front company bought the devices, put the explosives in them and then sold them at an intentional loss to Hezbollah.  I'll bet any amount of money you care to lose that's how it happened and every one of them went to the intended target.

There are plenty of people who are saying this is a "war crime" or similar.  Sorry but there's no such thing in this sort of context as I've pointed out before.  These devices were explicitly coded for an encrypted network used only by Hezbollah and thus useless in the secondary market or by others.  In other words there is an extremely high probability, near 100%, that only a Hezbollah person would have them since they'd be the only people for whom they would work and further, since they were remote triggered with a message only if on that encrypted network would they explode.  That they might be living with others who are family members or similar elicits nothing more than a shrug from me.

To those who argue that the political, non-fighting parts of a "government" are immune that's bullshit folks.  Oh you can take whatever position you want but you're wrong and I don't care if you like it or not.  Take the US: We have a "civilian command and control" structure up to the President as CiC.  Therefore the President, who is subject to being removed by impeachment through Congress, which in turn means the people because we elect Congress and they serve at our pleasure, is an actual combatant in any military action this nation takes -- it is he or she who issues actual operational orders and both that person and the entirety of Congress and all persons who are employed in support of either, directly and indirectly, are legitimate military targets if and when we engage in any military act.

Indeed the same can be reasonably construed even against civilians because without tax money and the civilian infrastructure, including the flow of money, no war can be prosecuted at all.  That's right folks -- you, I, and everyone else are legitimate targets if there is a war because but for our contributions there is no war since all wars require material and money.  You don't really think Rosie was a riveter for other than the purpose of prosecuting a war, do you?  Well if she was riveting to prosecute a war then Rosie is a legitimate target for the other side.

Oh and spare me the high-minded bullshit about America in this regard.  Do recall we put a cruise missile through Gaddafi's office window -- and can we talk about Saddam?  He was hanged, was he not?  Well then why would you not expect Biden and Harris -- along with the entire State Department cadre in support of that crap over there to hang if Ukraine loses?  The only reason they won't is the inability of the other side to reach said people and do it.  How sure are you they can't reach them -- and, since you generated the tax revenue that funded that war and thus are the reason it occurred, how sure might you be that they cannot reach you?  May I remind you that it is much easier to reach you or I than it is to reach the President?

Again -- if you don't like wars don't start one and don't let your activity be the reason one can be funded and continued either.

Speaking of wars those can be rather "un"-civil too.  Indeed war is the end result of reason in the context of politics that fails to find acceptance and one or both sides decide to continue by violent means.

Like, for example, attempted political assassinations of a candidate when you fear you might lose through the process of reason at the ballot box.

Let me point something out to those who are engaged in these events and those who effectively cheer them on such as the current Administration and its spokesperson as well as many in the government itself along with others among their families (e.g. Vindman's wife) who have made quips on social media like "no ears were harmed."

Are you sure you want a war because it sure appears, to this person, that the entire left side of the aisle not only wants one they're deliberately trying to provoke it right here at home!

Do you have any idea what that looks like if you get what you're provoking?

Let me explain it to you since the above principle applies to anyone who possesses a brain: Anyone involved in any way with the promotion, funding or operations of the side aggrieved is a legitimate target in the event of war.

Anyone and everyone.

Yes, you with a campaign sign on your front lawn or a bumper sticker on your car.  Your spouse and children who are part and parcel of the reason you labor and produce.  Anyone who has donated any amount of money to a political campaign or PAC, even one dollar is enough.  Anyone who works for an organization that has funded or is a SuperPac, or benefits from any interest said PACs advocate for.  All the businesses, magazines, newspapers, their corporate owners along with every single employee of same who are the reason said corporation earns money and thus can exist and more.

Yeah, that's like damn near the entire American population on one side or another and I, for one would rather not have simply going to the mailbox in the afternoon be a potential "shooting gallery" style event.

Then again I can reason and foresee the logical conclusion to this sort of stupidity and an awful lot of people in this nation apparently cannot.

If you start this crap that is in fact the "solution set" of people who are "fair game" and I'm sure you can figure out that you can either sit at home and try to protect your house and the people in from being destroyed or you can go to work or simply make a run to the store and expose same to destruction.  You can't do both because you can't be in two places at once and worse, everyone else is in the same situation at the same time and literally everyone is a potential aggressor with no way to know who will do the "evil" thing.  It is obviously impossible to either protect all the potential targets or arrest everyone with the means and potential motive to commit such an act when all it takes is utterly bog-common things everyone has at hand in their homes.

If you think the war in Gaza, Lebanon or Syria is bad you really need a wake-up call or perhaps a history lesson because in places like Rwanda, where they first banned guns, the people there didn't bother shooting anyone -- they used machetes and slaughtered about 20% of the population within a couple month's time.  Who doesn't have a steak knife within easy reach and if you think such is not a "big deal" go ask an EMT about whether such an attack is dangerous.

We have a serious problem in this nation -- and indeed worldwide -- in that people have become disconnected from the consequence of war and other forms of "unrest."  While a lone nutjob acts alone and with his or her own resources, which are typically quite-limited politically-motivated violence, such as the mobs in 2020 who burned, looted and murdered, "CHAZ" and similar garbage, the money-driven invasion of "migrants" that in fact has been repeatedly shown to be motivated and exploited on the basis of money and said persons allegedly "helped" are nothing more than human farm animals abused for said purpose and more are NOT the acts of singular individuals -- they are acts that require organization, coordination and participation to take place just like Rosie had to rivet that plane together so it could go bomb Germans and Japanese and both Rosie and the entire plant management, along with the suppliers of the metal, rivets and energy conspired together to do so.  Without every one of them no plane flies and thus no city gets bombed.

Hundreds of years ago every King understood this.  He had to leave his keep and get on his horse to prosecute the war because the war had to be led and the men needed said leadership and motivation.  This meant he had to risk being personally killed.  His men had to be so-motivated by his personal risk because they had to look the other guy in the eye while running him through with their swords and they knew damn well that the other guy would look them in the eye if he killed them in exactly the same way.  There were no "safe spaces", there were no "rules of war", if you lost your kids were frequently slaughtered like dogs and your wife raped so as to produce more of "their" side's genetic material, it was very likely your town would be burnt to ash and everyone knew that every single person in the nearest village and in fact through the entire land was exposed to this risk as soon as war began.

You thus only started and participated in said wars that were worth that deeply personal risk.  If directly attacked you had no choice; fight or die.  But otherwise, where you had a choice, you thought about it long and hard because there was no escaping the consequences all the way to the top.

Now look at everything post-WWII.  Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, the bullshit in Ukraine and now Hezbollah/Israel/whatever.  Why should we, or those in Europe, think we're free of risk when we want to fund and supply these people?  More to the point where do you think these assholes taking potshots and trying to blow up a political candidate get the idea they can do that without every one of their family members, and all of the political party members who have cheered on such acts via rhetoric such as displaying heads cut off in effigy being exposed to a retributive strike by members of the other side?

The old ways, before we had push-button technology, forced you to confront the reality of what you were doing, whether directly or by providing supply, aid and comfort to those engaged in said actions.  The "international" political apparatus of course wants to claim this is "illegitimate" through things like the "Geneva Conventions" but their concern is not for the people at large -- it is for their own skin and that of their families which damn well ought to be fully exposed up to and including at the cost of their lives when they wage war, whether directly, by proxy or by supply either through physical material or intelligence and whether domestically or otherwise.

Why?  Because only the very real risk of serious personal consequences -- not high-minded bullshit spewed from some ivory tower -- has a proven record of deterring people from being assholes.  Even that is not a perfect record by any means but the last 70 years and especially the last decade right here at home with the politically-motivated riots in 2020 none of which were punished make clear that all the high-minded and mealy-mouthed bullshit is worthless.  Without deterrence every unpunished crime begats another more-serious one because there is no cost imposed on anyone for committing it and therefore as long as there is benefit to commit the crime the pattern of escalation will continue.

Arson is one of the most-serious felonies that is on the books and in fact a person RAISING BAIL MONEY FOR THE ALLEGED OFFENDERS is running for President and the Governor of one of the focal states of said attacks who sat back AND LET IT HAPPEN, PARTICULARLY CENTERED AMONG BLACK BUSINESSES despite having command and control of the National Guard is her VP candidate.  Said candidates have the gall to expect black people's votes today!

The outrageous farming of humans for profit at the cost of their abuse over the last three decades, none of which has been punished even though all of it is a felony under laws on the books since the 1950s continues apace today including in Springfield Ohio.  Neither State OR Federal Government when under control of either party over the last two Administrations has brought a single charge under 8 USC 1324 even when citizens have been murdered by illegal aliens.

Further, in the last couple of political cycles the belief that such acts, along with the intentional and illegal obfuscation of  timely election results, coupled with a refusal by the judiciary to order actual evidence audits and the toss of any results where the chain of custody required by State Law is not properly maintained makes clear that everyone involved on all sides and in all branches of government believes THERE IS NO PRICE for even the most-hideous abuse and felony.

I rest my case.