I wasn’t talking about a NUCLEAR preemptive action, Don. I said a surgical strike on missile sites (I think I did–if I didn’t make that clear, I apologize). Surgical strikes are carried out with conventional weapons–I don’t know why anyone would want to use nuclear for that, but maybe I’m wrong. Unfortunately, I don’t believe we can be sure we know where all of those missile sites are, and some are apparently mobile. Taking out a missile site would be more like shooting the gun out of the hand of the aggressor though no doubt people attending the sites could be killed or hurt in the process. The goal is to kill missiles, not to harm people.
As for ACTUALLY shooting a gun out of someone’s hand–I’m no genius, but I’m smarter than trying to do that. Center mass. I will absolutely pull that trigger for my husband if needed and for anyone else who might be under threat from a bad guy. I’m not a Hutterite. My dad fought in WWII and I’m proud of him and if he and others hadn’t done that, and no one else intervened, the Nazis and Japanese imperialists (or which-ever group survived a subsequent struggle between the two) would now be ruling the world (unless someone ELSE took THAT regime down.) John the Baptist told the soldiers to be satisfied with their wages and not to take advantage of the locals (or something similar–I can’t remember exactly). He could have told them to lay down their weapons and willingly suffer the consequences. Just because many of them were essentially slaves to Rome doesn’t excuse obeying orders to use physical force–if that’s never justified. Maybe the Baptist was wrong.
If he WAS wrong, then we should immediately disband all police forces, military forces, and even disciplinary practices that require the (often violent) use of force such as the prison system. One should NEVER call 911 in case of a crime, because one might become implicit in a police officer feeling forced to do evil by using violence to protect one. One should not approach a suspected bomber because of the high probability one might push him to injure or kill himself by detonating a bomb to prevent his own capture (which would no doubt also have required violence to achieve.)
The Hutterites can have their beliefs and live by them and survive in nice little communities because most of the world does NOT live by Hutterite beliefs. Hutterites and other pacifists are protected by the violence of others who are willing to keep the violence of those of evil intent away from them. They are protected, ultimately, by violent men. That’s not their fault (unless they pay their taxes). They can’t stop the police from protecting their communities although they can refrain from calling for help (and maybe they WOULD refrain–I don’t know). It’s like the parents who refuse to have their child vaccinated against life-threatening disease. As long as the child stays in communities in which most of the people have been vaccinated, he will be unlikely to be exposed to the diseases for which he has little in the way of defense (that defense is also so microscopically violent that doctors have named one of our white blood cell types Natural Killer Cell). His safety is in the fact that others have done what he (his parents) will NOT do for whatever reason. Same with the Hutterites. They’re (more or less) surrounded by a cushion of potential violence on their behalf, which allows them to live in relative safety while refusing to personally commit violence on their own behalf on on behalf of others. IMO, it’s kind of hypocritical. Not their fault. They can’t do anything about it–but it still allows them to live in a way that would otherwise not be possible–or at least not possible for long.