Charmion thanks for your correction, the Rape of Dinah occurs in Genesis 34.

I wasn't meaning to 'cast parts' so much as to reflect on the principle of appropriate response. One family member is either assaulted, kidnapped, or both. Is it just or wise to respond by killing as many male villagers as possible? The translation in which I first read the episode had Jacob telling his sons "You have made my name stink in the land".

After 9/11, I think it is safe to say that most of the world accepted the 'right' of the US in going into Afghanistan where the Islamofascist regime gave aide and comfort to the sponsors of the World Trade Center outrage, not to mention a place to practice.

Going into Iraq was more of a reach, like killing the relatives of the actual perps. And the inefficacy and blundering that may be an inevitable part of war but yet does as no good in the press of the world has enabled us to 'stink' worldwide, despite our feelings that our cause is more or less 'pure'.

By analogy, I am entitled to defend my life against a dangerous neighbor, but if my neighbor is not a threat to my life, but because he lets his dog defecate on my lawn, or even if he beats his wife, it does not entitle me to strap on my A K and shoot him and a couple of his kids down. Or does it?