Another damned war
I hate all wars, that much goes without saying. But I hate them even more when people try to masquerade them as some sort of retribution for bad deeds, or policing, or some shit like that. And here we are again with a rich country waging an aggressive war on a poor country; this time it’s not Bush and his lackeys, but it doesn’t make much difference. UN is feebly protesting, a few countries are trying to help, and unsurprisingly the US is not taking a very clear stance.
This time though there is not even any excuse, no violent tyrant to overturn, no burka to remove. This time there is a group of terrorists (that admittedly needs to be disarmed, but that is beside the point), which is part of a political party. It’s akin to Canada invading the US in case some crazy right-wing group bombed Toronto.
And it’s even worse, because Hizbollah is an integral part of Lebanon’s life, and has been working with other groups to actually bring the country out of its violent past. But this aggression is blowing on the ashes, and if it is on the one hand creating stronger national unity, you can only wonder what will happen once the war is over and the blaming starts.
Now, I have been thinking about all of this and have been exitant to blog about it, because I always have strong feelings about wars but prefer not to vent; and then again, Chris for one writes about these topics much better than I do and with first hand information.
But then I open the Guardian and read:
Researchers for Human Rights Watch, the New York-based non-governmental organisation, say they have compiled details on the deaths of more than a quarter of the roughly 400 Lebanese killed by the air strikes Israel launched a fortnight ago. “We’ve investigated the results of air campaigns in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and the pattern here is different. They’re hitting civilians time and time again,” Peter Bouckaert, a long-serving Human Rights Watch investigator, said.
“Just because the Israelis are using smart weapons doesn’t mean they’re hitting military targets,” he added. “The Israelis seem to make no discrimination between military and civilian targets.”
The Human Rights Watch researchers are convinced from Ahmed Ali’s description that the family was injured by at least two cluster bomblets, which entered the basement, releasing metal fragments. The weapons are a standard part of Israel’s arsenal and were used by them in Lebanon in the 1980s.
“We hear horrific stories from there where so many women and children were killed. The women told us ‘Let us at least be able to retrieve our bodies, because the dogs are eating them’,” he said.
So I end up wondering: is this actually a war, or is this a well-planned, well-organized, high tech genocide?
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2 Responses to “Another damned war”
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Andrea,
It is indeed not a genocide. As a left sided Israeli, I totally disagree with all Israeli goverments except the Rabin’s one. One of the reasons I left Israel is my political views.
But you see only one side of the picture, you relie on mass media for making your conclusions and there are a few reasons not to trust mass media in this case. Firstly it is mostly biased and secondly Israel does not make propaganda wars as Arabian countries do. Do you remeber seeing pictures of Israeli children laying on the streets torned after a blast? Have you seen pictures of the dead bodies of the rocket strike on Haifa? In Israel it’s a red line.
Now about some “facts”.
“The Israelis seem to make no discrimination between military and civilian targets.”
That is almost 100% correct, do you know why? Because Hizbollah is hiding weapons and makes it’s camps inside civil buildings, in the basements of their citizens houses. Where should Israel strike to destroy rockets? Military targets? But Israel is not in war with Lebanon army! On the other hand, Hizbollah points the rockets ONLY on civilian targets, they did not kill any Israeli soldier by these rockets, ONLY civilians, the few Israeli soldier died during the border fights, not hit by rockets, when Lebanese hundrets of dead are almost all guerillas.
Please, don’t take me wrong, I do condemn current Israel actions, I do think that it went too far, but please, keep your eyes open, and don’t trust evereything mass media presents as facts.
After all, today’s wars are not for ideas, but for money. So find the motivation – and you’ll find the guilty.
Michael, definitely, terrorists are terrorists and I’m absolutely not condoning them in any way. And I can see that small children and other civilians are being killed on both sides; but the difference here is that one side wants to be considered as more civilized than the other, yet it’s hard to see the difference when they are doing the exact same thing!
As far as I understand, and I might be wrong, but this is what I gathered from as many sources as I could get access to: the problem is not so much that the terrorists are hiding in civilian areas, the point is that they are really part of that population. The Hizbollah is as Lebanon as you can get, it is a popular movement, a general expression against the previous Israelian occupation. Sadly, some fringes are continuing to use violence, and that need to be stopped; but that doesn’t change the fact that in the majority, the brothers and mothers and children of those same terrorists are civilians that yes, believe Israel has no place invading there country, but they are not involved in any terrorist activity. Maintaining that it’s ok to kill them because there are terrorists amongst them is akin to tearing down an apartment block because there are a couple of murderers living in there.
Regarding the media: don’t worry, I don’t trust most of the media, and whenever I sort of accept what they are saying, I still triple check them. And I still realize I’m not getting the full picture. At the same time though, I feel that relying on bloggers who actually live in the country offers at least a partial insight into what’s happening.