Collateral Damage
Jul 28th, 2006 at 5:20 pm by Susie
Just to keep things interesting, Salon has a piece today which examines the conventional wisdom that Hizbollah is hiding amid the civilian population in Lebanon:
Throughout this now 16-day-old war, Israeli planes high above civilian areas make decisions on what to bomb. They send huge bombs capable of killing things for hundreds of meters around their targets, and then blame the inevitable civilian deaths — the Lebanese government says 600 civilians have been killed so far — on “terrorists” who callously use the civilian infrastructure for protection.
But this claim is almost always false. My own reporting and that of other journalists reveals that in fact Hezbollah fighters — as opposed to the much more numerous Hezbollah political members, and the vastly more numerous Hezbollah sympathizers — avoid civilians. Much smarter and better trained than the PLO and Hamas fighters, they know that if they mingle with civilians, they will sooner or later be betrayed by collaborators — as so many Palestinian militants have been.
For their part, the Israelis seem to think that if they keep pounding civilians, they’ll get some fighters, too. The almost nightly airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut could be seen as making some sense, as the Israelis appear convinced there are command and control bunkers underneath the continually smoldering rubble. There were some civilian casualties the first few nights in places like Haret Hreik, but people quickly left the area to the Hezbollah fighters with their radios and motorbikes.
But other attacks seem gratuitous, fishing expeditions, or simply intended to punish anything and anyone even vaguely connected to Hezbollah. Lighthouses, grain elevators, milk factories, bridges in the north used by refugees, apartment buildings partially occupied by members of Hezbollah’s political wing — all have been reduced to rubble.
In the south, where Shiites dominate, just about everyone supports Hezbollah. Does mere support for Hezbollah, or even participation in Hezbollah activities, mean your house and family are fair game? Do you need to fire rockets from your front yard? Or is it enough to be a political activist?
The Israelis are consistent: They bomb everyone and everything remotely associated with Hezbollah, including noncombatants. In effect, that means punishing Lebanon. The nation is 40 percent Shiite, and of that 40 percent, tens of thousands are employed by Hezbollah’s social services, political operations, schools, and other nonmilitary functions. The “terrorist” organization Hezbollah is Lebanon’s second-biggest employer.
With all the technology, I don’t know why, if, what the Isreals are asserting is true, why can’t they show pictures of launchers near civilians?
The Israelis are following the lead of the USA. The BUSH Family Evil Empire is condoning the violence and it will take decades for The USA to correct the damage this idjit and the Mayberry Mob he has surrounded himself.
They do have a point. A rather twisted one. If they kill EVERY person in Lebanon, then they will have killed all the Hezbollah militants.
Read the article. All through it is EVIDENCE that Hezb is among civilians. Unless you believe that they have “civilians” and “military” in some separated fashion within their terrorist organization, and that the “civilians” are not a part of what their “military” does, you have to believe that they are mixed in. The article refutes itself.
Actually, Oscar, that’s exactly the way it is - much as Sinn Fein is a political party in Ireland, and the IRA is a terrorist organization. Members of the Sinn Fein are not all terrorists, nor do they purport to be - but they support the political aims of the IRA. There is a political Hizbollah party, and they are not all terrorists, but they support the political aims of Hizbollah. Clear enough for you?