On sunday the game of the “Hooligan Eagles” against the “LesserEvil Hawks” is taking place. The city decided, in order to protect the police, it will not send in police to enforce a peaceful game. Instead, it intends to supply the fans of the “LesserEvil Hawks” with handguns so they can protect themselves against the often violent fans of the “Hooligan Eagles”.

When the referee takes one of the Hooligan Eagles players off the field for a foul, the camera pans to an increasingly rowdy crowd of Eagle fans close to the Hawks fan section.

The viewers sit upright in their sofas as the camera zooms in on a man drawing his gun to prevent an Eagle Fan from throwing a molotov cocktail at the referee. The Fan freezes for a couple seconds looking the gunman in the eye. Then he realizes that he is holding a molotov cocktail with a burning fuse and throws it in the general direction of the Hawks. The gunman is not even close to the point of impact but is startled enough to fire a few precise warning shots hitting the floor right next to the thrower - well at least that is how it looked in his head. In reality the bullet strafes the head of a guy sitting next to his friends two rows below. Startled by the gunshot they turn around and see the bloodstained face of their friend and a bunch men holding guns pointed at them.

A bunch? Well, remember the molotov cocktail? Yeah… As they heard about the handgun deliveries to the Hawks the group of friends came prepared. Immediately grasping the situation they take cover and return the fire.

Escalating Violence

With the violence spiralling out of control, the major calls for an emergency meeting. While protesters outside demand an immediate intervention to stop the violence, the chief of police argues that they do not really have the resources to respond to every conflict in every sports game around the country. He also argues that policy casualties would look really bad in the media. So he suggests precision drone strikes and other air superiority measures.

As it turns out, firing rockets from wirelessly controlled drones a couple of kilometers above the stadium is not that precise after all, even with all the smart rocket tech and stuff. And most of the people killed are not intended targets.

documents detailing a special operations campaign in northeastern Afghanistan, Operation Haymaker, show that between January 2012 and February 2013, U.S. special operations airstrikes killed more than 200 people. Of those, only 35 were the intended targets. During one five-month period of the operation, according to the documents, nearly 90 percent of the people killed in airstrikes were not the intended targets. - The Intercept

As people watch their friends get blown to pieces by rockets raining from a blue sky, it is only a matter of time until a traumatized man blows himself up next to the local police station.

The major immediately erects barriers around the stadium to prevent any more terrorists from immigrating. They do not share our values and culture he argues, so they could never integrate into our society. They come from an extremely violent place and we do not want them to bring that violence to us.

In response to human rights activists he generously creates an asylum process. It only requires people exiting the stadium to prove that they are fleeing from political persecution and are not just looking for a better life.

Is This a Fair Comparison?

In a classic war, there is a government you can negotiate peace with. If you help the loser back on their feet (with something like a marshall plan) you might actually create a lasting peace.

But if your policy is

We do not negotiate with terrorists

this is never going to be an outcome. Countries like Germany are not even constitutionally allowed to fight offensive wars. So what is their excuse?

If you really want to view it as policing then you ought to behave like a police force. That means protecting civilians at your own expense and not being so liberal with “collateral damage”. But it especially means that weapon deliveries and air strikes are not a reasonable middle ground at all.

Stay out, or do it properly! It should not have to be said that the current strategy of slowly escalating measures is just as bad as slowly fanning increasing amounts of oxygen into a fire and calling it “blowing out the flame”.

For this reason weapon deliveries and “air support” is not a reasonable middle ground and a false compromise when asked whether to intervene or not.