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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 23, 2026

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So if a mail bomb is sent to some IDF recruit by Hezbhollah to blow up inside his house then that's not terrorism because it's a military target?

If Hezbollah were genuinely targeting a specific soldier, I wouldn't call that terrorism, especially if Hezbollah had the option of destroying the entire neighborhood the soldier lived in but instead decided to use a mail bomb. I would object for other reasons, but I wouldn't call it terrorism.

As far as blockades go, I agree that the rules of war do not have a general prohibition on naval blockades. However, I recall the following:

(1) A blockade must be directed at enemy territory, as distinguished from a blockade of the high seas or of an international waterway. Thus, if the Iranian Navy blockaded the Port of San Diego, this would arguably conform to the rules of war. But I doubt that blockading the Strait of Hormuz would conform.

(2) The blockading state must not play favorites, i.e. the blockade must be enforced against all states, friendly or not.

I'm not an expert, but it looks to me like this is an illegal blockade. Of course I am open to being corrected.

Sorry, I don't believe you. If you had hundreds of bombs going off inside houses, bedrooms, with kids around, in grocery stores, churches, everyone would call it terrorism if the tables were turned.

Sorry, I don't believe you.

Well, I have many posts here, many of which touch on the Arab-Israel conflict. I challenge you to identify one post where (1) Hezbollah or any other adversary of Israel launched an attack at an Israeli soldier; and (2) I referred to the incident as "terrorism."

everyone would call it terrorism

I made no claim in my post about what other people would say. In any event, I'm not sure who you are referring to by "everyone." I doubt you mean literally "everyone."

What I can see happening, possibly, is Hezbollah and its ilk trying to put a fig leaf over its terrorism by claiming they were actually targeting soldiers. Of course that's an issue of fact to be determined from the context.

Blockades when you are at war has long been normalized.

BTW are you conceding on the blockade issue, i.e. you don't dispute my points about international waterways and selectivity?