AbbaGav

Anyone other than commenter Rick remember who uttered this famous line challenging the received wisdom of proportional response?

Here is the rest of what President Barlet said:

BARTLET
What is the virtue of a proportional response?

FITZWALLACE
I’m sorry.

BARTLET
What’s the virtue of a proportional response? Why’s it good? [beat] They hit an airplane, so we hit a transmitter, right? That’s a proportional response.

FITZWALLACE
Sir, in the case of Pericles...

BARTLET
They hit a barracks, so we hit two transmitters?

FITZWALLACE
That’s roughly it, sir.

BARTLET
It’s what we do. I mean this is what we do.

LEO
Yes sir, it’s what we do, it’s what we’ve always done.

BARTLET
Well, if it’s what we do, if it’s what we’ve always done, don’t they know we’re going to do it?

LEO
Sir, if you would turn your attention to Pericles One.

BARTLET
I have turned my attention to Pericles One, it’s two ammo dumps, an abandoned railroad bridge and a Syrian intelligence agency.

FITZWALLACE
Those are four high rated military targets, sir.

BARTLET
But they know we’re going to do that, they know we’re going to do that. Those areas have been abandoned for four days. We know that from the satellites. We have the intelligence.

LEO
Sir.

BARTLET
They did that, so we did this, it’s the cost of doing business, it’s been factored in, right?

LEO
Mr. President...

BARTLET
Am I right or am I missing something here?

FITZWALLACE
No sir, you’re right sir.

BARTLET
Then I ask again, what is the virtue of a proportional response?

FITZWALLACE
It isn’t virtuous Mr. President. It’s all there is sir.

BARTLET
It is not all there is.

LEO
Sir, Admiral Fitzwallace...

FITZWALLACE
Excuse me Leo, but pardon me Mr. President, just what else is there?

BARTLET
A disproportional response. Let the word ring forth from this time and this place, you kill an American, any American, we don’t come back with a proportional response, we come back [bangs fist on table] with total disaster!

GENERAL
Are you suggesting we carpet-bomb Damascus?

BARTLET
General, I am suggesting that you and Admiral Fitzwallace and Secretary Hutchinson and the rest of the national security team take the next sixty minutes and put together a U.S. response scenario that doesn’t make me think we are just docking somebody’s damn allowance! [gets up and leaves the room. Everyone stands.]

I'm not suggesting anyone carpet-bomb Damascus, or even bomb Syrian carpets although that is a thought. But bean counting referees of war are not going to keep the world safe. In the end they just keep attackers safe to play their deadly game all over again, confident the world will never allow anyone to make them pay a high enough price that they would change their choices.

Great find, Rick.