[lit-ideas] Re: Do You Have a Moral Urgency?
- From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 07:03:08 -0700 (PDT)
Phil freely engages in making unsupported assertions
and then he expects me to spend my time and energy
refuting them. Simply, there is no evidence for the
claims that Hezbollah was using civilians as human
shields other than the statements of the IDF press
service and Egeland. This is refuted by the accounts
of the survivors as well as by the lack of Hezbollah
causalties at the sites where civilian casualties were
inflicted. With regard to the Qana massacre, even the
IDF later admitted that it could not give a coherent
explanation as to why that building was targetted.
Also, it is a fact that the Hezollah had killed more
Israeli soldiers than civilians, whereas Israel killed
many more civlians than Hezbollah fighters. All this
has been parrotted over and over in the articles I
posted as well as by myself. (See especially the
articles I posted in the thread "Rules of War.")
Further, even the IDF did not claim that it was
targetting only the Hezbollah fighters; it said
repeatedly in public that it was targetting
infrastructure such as roads, bridges, factories,
installations etc. Where Phil is getting his supposed
"facts" is beyond me.
As to the claim that: "Israel sent in its military
with rules of engagement that required a minimum of
civilian casualties, thereby endangering the lives
of its soldiers" this is complete nonsense. Israel
only brought in its ground troops after two weeks of
heavy bombings when most of Lebanese civilians had
already fled the South of the country.
Finally, as to Israel having supposably attained
rational objectives "to clear a buffer
zone from its border and force a peacemaking presence
to maintain peace" I reply that: 1) these were not the
objectives that were originally stated and 2) whether
Israel has indeed achieved this is highly doubtful.
O.K.
--- Phil Enns <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> The facts:
>
> 1. Hezbollah fired more than a thousand rockets well
> beyond the
> attacking Israeli forces, targeting Israeli cities.
> Hezbollah targeted
> Israeli civilians. Israeli fire was directed where
> they believed
> Hezbollah fighters were hiding. Israel targeted
> Hezbollah fighters.
>
> 2. Hezbollah made themselves indistinguishable from
> the civilian
> population. Hezbollah endangered the lives of
> Lebanese civilians so
> that they could launch rockets aimed at Israeli
> civilians. Israel sent
> in its military with rules of engagement that
> required a minimum of
> civilian casualties, thereby endangering the lives
> of its soldiers.
> Israel endangered the lives of its soldiers so that
> there would be a
> minimum of Lebanese civilian casualties.
>
> 3. Hezbollah declared itself victorious because its
> fighters were able
> to successfully hide from the Israelis while at the
> same time
> terrorizing the Israeli civilian population. Israel
> declared itself
> victorious because it was able to clear a buffer
> zone from its border
> and force a peacemaking presence to maintain peace.
>
> Omar should feel free to indicate which facts have
> been refuted.
> Further, he should feel free to indicate other facts
> that would refute
> any claims I am making. Finally, he should do this
> himself.
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Phil Enns
> Toronto, ON
>
>
>
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