Info War
The tragedy of the deaths of the child shields used by Hezbollah at Qana was entirely foreseeable. The Israelis told the civilians to leave. It appears that they didn’t. Were they held involuntarily? We don’t know. We do know that it took the abulances six hours to get to the injured and when they did they had the media with them….Hmmm.
Of course, Kofi wants a ceasefire now, but the Lebanese PM refused to meet with Secretary Rice until there was a cease fire. This sort of pre-condition ensures there will be no ceasefire for quite a while.
From the Israeli perspective, while the deaths are tragic and unintended, this indicates a degree of seriousness which has been lacking in the attacks to date.
This is not a war Israel can allow itself to lose. And, unfortunately, a win involves inflicting really serious damage on Hezbollah. So long as Hezbollah insists on using children as sheilds there are going to be needless casualties.
We now have photographs which show Hezbollah, in civilian clothes, surrounded by teenagers, with anti-aircraft guns in civilian areas. Not that this will stop the cries of “massacre”.
The Israelis have to accept the fact that in the information war they are not going to appear as good guys. For Israel’s long term security that does not matter; what does matter is that Hezbollah and the Shi’ite/Arab world recognize that the Israelis are still the most powerful force in the area. At the moment this is not happening. And that is how you lose an information war.
July 31st, 2006 at 4:34 am
Yeah, those pictures are about as damning as the top two pictures over here: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=260
Civilian children in Israel while military guys look on, writing messages on rockets.
Sheesh. Both sides in this are utterly mad and insane.
July 31st, 2006 at 7:07 am
held Involuntary? What crap. they wren’t child shields either, stop spreading that disinformation. Where do u expect them to escape to, wiith no water, no food and on foot with Iraelis jets dropping bombs.They were terrified, most of them children. I’m so sick of hearing crap armchair/firepalce commentary from people who are more qualified to be commenting on how to mow a lawn, not comment about a war zone 1000’s of miles away.
July 31st, 2006 at 7:42 am
It isn’t a valid justification to continue bombing. It isn’t a valid argument to say “the civilians could just leave”. It isn’t a valid logical conclusion to say that all civilian deaths can be atrributed to Hezbollah hiding behind them”. It isn’t a valid course of action to continue war with Lebanon.
August 1st, 2006 at 2:04 am
Let me know again how 750,000 leave after the roads are disabled? The fluttering of pamphlets has taken on an inordinate moral authority all of a sudden.