EVEN if you use the much higher figure of 925 dead in Lebanon, quoted, as I write, on Sky News this morning (which gives no breakdown whatever for the Hezbollah element which must be a significant part of any such total), that still equals: one dead for every 9.3 Israeli air force sorties; one dead for every five targets hit; and one dead for every 14 Hezbollah-held Irano-Syrian rockets. Neither "indiscriminate", nor "disproportionate".

And did the USA after Pearl Harbour on that 'day of infamy', from 7.53am on 7 December, 1941, either (1) declare the Japanese (a) army, (b) air force, (c) surface fleet . . .other than aircraft carriers . . .all off-limits, since only carrierlaunched Japanese aircraft had bombed the US navy, marines and US army air corps, and also (d) coastal or fleet submarines . . . since only five mini-subs had attacked Pearl Harbour, or (2) declare that the US response had to cease as soon as 2,388 Japanese had died, and 1,178 were wounded?

If not, what exactly does this slogan of "disproportionate" mean when deployed as the favoured "weapon of mass distraction" by today's media, or by "Old Europe's" political pontificators ? Should it not mean, in 2006, as in 1941, or in 1936 in Spain, or 1931 in Manchuria, or 1950 in Korea, forces and force "proportionate to the nature and scale of the entire threat" from the aggressor?

Or should the US have responded to Japanese aggression only by destroying the same number of (a) 188 aircraft, (b) 12 warships, and (c) six airfields? Or hitting only two or three naval airfields, as only the US naval air stations at Kaneohe on Oahu, and on Ford Island, and the US marine corps air wing at Ewa on Oahu, were hit?

Was the US limited to deploying only 353 aircraft against the Imperial Japanese navy, since Japan attacked with 353 aircraft? And if most of the first Japanese wave were torpedo bombers, and most dive-bombers in the second wave, had the US to be "proportionate" and adopt that particular force configuration?

Was Japanese navy commander-in-chief Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto a legitimate target, if neither the US navy chief of naval operations, nor the Pacific fleet commander-in-chief, were killed ?

Does any sane use of "proportionality" only mean using the force needed to remove the real, ongoing and major threat posed by the aggressor, a threat which is not limited to the actual enemy forces, or tactics, or weapons, deployed in the first attack ?

Tom Carew, Ranelagh, Dublin.

Israel has a right to resist . . . and exist From Tom Cooney

DIARMUID Doyle . . . and his fairweather hero Dermot Ahern . . . are hypocrites.

Recently, Ahern called in the Israeli ambassador to complain about IDF operations in Lebanon. Ahern had access to information before the war that the Lebanese government was allowing Hezbollah to run weapons from Damascus to south Lebanon for use against Israel.

In April, Kofi Annan reported to the UN security council that, on 6 February, the Lebanese government allowed 12 trucks carrying weapons and ammunition, including Katyusha rockets, from Damascus to reach Hezbollah because they "considered the 'resistance' to be legitimate".

Hezbollah now uses that arsenal . . . which Iran and Syria supply . . . to kill indiscriminately Israeli civilians.

The minister must have seen the weapons at work in Haifa over the weekend. But he hasn't called in the Iranian, Syrian or Lebanese ambassadors to explain.

Doyle's bias prevents him from even seeing that Hezbollah, under Iran's instructions, was planning, with Iranian weapons, to bleed Israel. Or that Israel has a right to defend itself. Four things from this article confirm his anti-Jewish bias.

First, he describes Daniel Meggido as an "unctuous representative" of his country Israel. 'Unctuous' means 'oily', an old anti-Semitic slur.

Second, he says combatting Hezbollah is a demented response to kidnapping a couple of soldiers. But he deliberately ignores that Hezbollah has been firing rockets indiscriminately on Israeli civilians even though the UN has certified that Israel left Lebanon six years ago. Don't Jews have a right to life?

Third, he implicitly denies that Jews have a right to their national homeland. The complacency of his anti-Jewish prejudice is so rooted that he doesn't even consider whether Jews have a human-rights justification for their state.

And fourth, he flags the nested prejudices that speak of the 'Jewish lobby' or the 'Christian Right'. He can't even contemplate that many Americans across the political divide see the human-rights merits of supporting Israel's right to exist.

Diarmuid Doyle sober is just as pernicious as Mel Gibson drunk.

Tom Cooney, The Rise, Boden Park, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.

More filthy photos of SeanOg please

From: Gina Byrne

WHAT were you thinking of, printing THAT photo of Sean Og O hAilpin (Sport Section, page 30)? Lord only knows how many Sunday roasts were ruined in the face of such an Adonis-like distraction.

Like all women alive, I was already aware of how deeply attractive that Corkman is, thank you very much, without seeing exactly what is going on under his kit. And as a Dubliner, now residing in Tipperary, I would never have dreamt of following the Rebels, but now feel duty-bound to follow their every move. Or postmatch jersey swapping at least. No doubt if Cork go on to win the All-Ireland, you will reprint this photo lifesize, in a souvenir pull-out issue, in a shameless attempt to sell a copy of your excellent paper to every female in the land.

Hint hint.

Gina Byrne, Annaholty, Birdhill, Co Tipperary.

Do Israel's defenders know their history?

From Keith Nolan VARIOUS correspondents throughout the world have sometimes tried to justify the criticism of Israel's appalling actions in Lebanon by comparing it with the British experience of the Irish and how good and nice it was of them (the British) not to retaliate by bombing Dublin and other cities and towns in our country. Obviously Ireland's history, both recent and long-ago, is not their strong point!

From my limited experience, I wonder if the same people know anything about the activities of the Stern Gang, how and why the sectarian state of Israel was formed and the ignominious treatment of the Palestinian people by all the parties involved?

Keith Nolan, Carrick~on~Shannon, Co Leitrim.

Government failing on road deaths From Caitriona Fitzpatrick I WOULD like to commend your article 'Stories behind the flowers'' 6 August. I think it is important to highlight to people the serious loss of life and pain caused to families due to the number of fatalities on Irish roads.

The government's response to this growing crisis has been neither swift or effective but your article highlighting the dangers of the N11 may bring a greater awareness to drivers who use it. Due to failure by the government in this area the burden falls to the media to open people's eyes to the horrors that occur on our roads every week.

Caitriona Fitzpatrick, Douglas Road, Cork.

GAA is not cunning, just very stupid From Joseph Boyle I DISAGREE with many Cork fans who claim that the GAA is discriminating against them by fixing their football and hurling matches on two days running last weekend, on the grounds that discrimination involves thought and decisionmaking.

All the evidence in recent times, most notably in matters of discipline, is that very little logical thought, common sense or indeed any activity involving the use of brain cells, takes place at Croke Park.

Joseph Boyle, Kingsland Road, Dalston, London E8.