....in seven short paragraphs, by Mark Goldblatt in The American Spectator.
"Suppose, with one hand, I grab my two-year-old daughter and clutch her to my chest, and, with the other hand, I grab an AK47 and go on a shooting rampage in midtown Manhattan. Now suppose, in order to stop the shooting rampage, the police return fire and wind up killing both me and my daughter. Whose fault is the death of my daughter?
If you answered 'the police', congratulations, you've got a future as a terrorist apologist.
After Israel ended its occupation of the Gaza Strip last September, ceding control to the Palestinian Authority in exchange for the prospect of a lasting peace agreement, Hamas terrorists immediately began using the territory to fire Qassam rockets across Israel's southwestern border and into Israel. The terrorists intentionally launched the weapons from between civilian homes in order to make Israeli retaliation more difficult. Then, two weeks ago, the terrorists staged a kidnapping from Gaza, grabbing an Israeli soldier on border patrol, and demanding the release of thousands of terrorists for his safe return.
To retrieve the solider and end the rocket attacks, Israel sent its military forces back into Gaza -- at which point, Hezbollah terrorists, operating out of southern Lebanon, staged their own kidnappings of Israeli soldiers and began firing rockets across Israel's northern border. Israel is now responding with targeted missile strikes and precision bombings of known Hezbollah locations, which, like Hamas strongholds in Gaza, are intentionally embedded among civilian homes. In the course of Israel's actions in Gaza and southern Lebanon, hundreds of terrorists have been killed -- but so have scores of unarmed civilians.
So whose fault is the death of those civilians?
Here, then, is a microcosm of the struggle between Israel and its enemies over the last 50 years: One side conceals itself among local populations, deliberately targets civilians, and seeks to maximize casualties; the other side retaliates with uniformed military personnel, deliberately avoids harming civilians, and seeks to minimize casualties.
Not all stories have two sides. The current crisis in the Middle East is one such story. The Israelis are morally right. Their enemies are morally wrong. If you can't figure that out, you're morally lost."
Indeed.
The Iran Republican Guard invented Hezbollah. Syria is dependent on Iran for support in many ways. Hezbollah is dependent on both Iran and Syria for support.
ReplyDeleteIran ships munitions through Syria into Beirut where they're distributed to Hezbollah. One of Israel's first attacks was to "crater" the airstrip in Beirut to cut off the lines of supply to Hezbollah. Armies run on beans and bullets; if you cut off supply lines you can whittle them down more easily.
Many of the "civilians" in southern Lebanon are family members of Hezbollah fighters and are therefore part of the terrorist network.
If you marry, house, feed, and let terrorists shoot rockets at a sovereign, democratic country from your house...guess what? You're a terrorist.
There's damn few innocents left in the middle of a battlefield; if they're there, it's for a reason.
There are some erors in the way that this is posed. For example, if rather than midtown Manhattan, the killer was inside of a building in Midtown Manhattan, shooting out and refusing to let anyone leave. That is, I think, not perfect, but better. If that were the case, and the police blew up the building, or burned it, or used poisonous gas in it, whatever. The people left in the building that are killed during the police action were killed by whom?
ReplyDeleteI think what is going on in Israel and Lebanon is horrible. Obviously, Hezbollah is responsible for inciting this. But the degree that Israel has retaliated is unreasonable. 10x as many civilians have been killed. And no, they aren't all brothers, mothers and children of "bad people" Some just happen to live near a piece of infrastructure or have a neighbor that is a bad person.
I tend to think of Hezbollah as the middle-eastern version of the KKK. They are bad dudes, no doubt about it. But if they run for office (David Duke) they get votes in some parts of the country. Should we blow up the whole county or state that voted for them? The emotional part of me says that we should, but I usually try to let the logical side of me win out.
Penguin, when you quote "civilian" casualties in Lebanon, remember that Hezbollah are "civilians" and figure into that body count.
ReplyDeleteHezbollah indiscriminately fires rockets, over 1000 at last count, specifically to murder innocent civilians in Israel. OVER 1000!!!
Israel strikes military targets. Sometimes those targets are in purposely located by Hezbollah in civilian neighborhoods.
Hezbollah deliberately immerses themselves in the civilian Lebanese population just to generate the kind of response you've shown here...it's textbook Terrorist #101. Attack the government and force it to retaliate, then blame the government for atrocities. If you believe that Hezbollah is a "victim" here then you've bought into the terrorist propaganda and you're helping them defeat freedom and democracy. They're using you, plain and simple.
Israel has a responsibility to hundreds of thousands of Israelis who are hiding in bomb shelters under the pounding of Hezbollah rockets. The equivalent would be about 4.5 million Americans cowering in bomb shelters in the U.S. if we were under attack.
Perhaps more Hezbollah are killed because Israel is much more adept at waging war?
This will not end until the Puppetmasters of Jihadistan figure it's time to yank the stings of Hezbollah once again, this time back some 30-40 miles, where their missles can't reach Haifa. Then the Apologists and the Israeli Derangement Syndrome sufferers will babble until they get their way, and Israel pulls back again.....perhaps for the last time.
ReplyDeleteWhen do the Israelis decide they are going to stop listening to the outsiders, and decide to settle this issue permanently?
Well, you have made a good, but flawed point. If what Hezbollah wanted was to incite Israel to launch an attack againt civilian targets, then it is not I who has fallen into their trap.
ReplyDeleteIf I'm IDF, I can watch CNN and see where the missles are launched. I don't have any issue with Israel attacking targets in Lebanon. I have questions about degree and targeting. Also, your take on this seems to be the standard "nuke 'em all" I am sure that that is not what you mean. The question is where do you draw the line? I am concerned that a mild-mannered moderate Labanese man could become a desperate, angry militant when his whole family is killed sitting around the breakfast table.
If another country killed your family (no matter if the cause was justified) you would likely become such a man, as may I.
I think I saw Chris Matthews say that the problem is that if you kill one of these guys, you create 3 new extremists. If I read Israels' public stance correctly, they have no beef with the people of Lebanon, only with the bastards in Hezbollah. I support this stance. I just don't think that the action is measured.
Remember, this is the Klan. There are bad people mixed into the population. How, exactly, would you propose that Israel solve this problem once and for all? Please cc: the NSA, CIA and FBI so that they can implement your plan and solve this whole terrorism thing...
Create a 25 mile DMZ zone inside Lebanon.Patrol the zone with military forces from NATO and nations like Jordan, Egypt, and the Lebanese regulars. Any Hezbollahperps caught in the zone would be sentenced to five years hard labor slopping hogs.
ReplyDeletepenguin, you've obviously never been on the receiving end of a rocket attack.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the IDF or any other military relies on CNN to do their targeting.
When you get swept up in the "Israel is killing more than Herzbollah" and "if we kill them 3 more join up" then you've fallen into their propaganda trap. They WANT the world to think they're victims, they WANT the Israelis to kill them so they can scream "Atrocity!" and they WANT the world to demand a "cease-fire" so they can rest, regroup, rearm, and launch the next attack.
They want to kill all Jews, plain and simple. They don't care how many innocent civilians they kill on either side to achieve their goal.
This struggle will only cease when one side is no longer able to wage war against the other. I hope to God it's Hezbollah that ceases to exist. If not, we're all in for a long, long war against radical Islamists.
Hmm. "DMZ zone" is redundant. Monday was a long day.
ReplyDeleteJaycee, the "Atrocity" card is a time-honored tactic used by those who care nothing about their civilian populations.
The life of their citizens are expendable to the political, social, and economic agenda. They will SAY or DO ANYTHING if it it advances The Cause, regardless of the costs.
They're just like our American liberals in that regard.