EvilBastard wrote:Sadly the Israeli military has also proved a dab hand at picking out specific ambulances and minivans full of women and kids and blowing the everloving doodie out of them. A less charitable person might suggest that this is what comes of reliance on American military technology.
The strike on the UN post is unlikely to be a mistake, I fear, given that they can shoot a gnat's nadgers off from 30000000 feet. Some trigger-happy squaddy probably figured he might as well p*ss *everyone* off while he was at it. I feel sorry for the women and kids in Haifa and the other Israeli towns that have been targeted by Hezbollah, but the differences in the scale of destruction is unbelievable. The casualty figures scream "disproportionate". 40-odd Israelis, half of whom were soldiers (and therefore legitimate targets - sorry, but if you take the shilling then you know what you're letting yourself in for), while 3000-some Lebanese of whom they reckon a couple of hundred at the outside are Hezbollah.
And all of this for two soldiers - is anyone making sense of this, and if so, can they explain it to me?
Firstly, there is an unfortunate tendency for Westerners to think that military operations can be undertaken with godlike accuracy; this is simply not the case. Secondly, there have been reports of Hezbollah activity in the area of the observation post--they
do have a long history of a) blending in with civilian populations b) placing their installations near those of the UN observer forces on the Lebanese border in order to decrease the liklihood of attack, and c) employing Red Crescent ambulances as a means of transporting equipment and people. In fact, on the alleged UN attack, let's let the UN speak for itsef:
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/pr010.pdf
Here's the third paragraph:
Another UN position of the Ghanaian battalion in the area of Marwahin in the western sector was also directly hit by one mortar round from the Hezbollah side last night. The round did not explode, and there were no casualties or material damage. Another 5 incidents of firing close to UN positions from the Israeli side were reported yesterday. It was also reported that Hezbollah fired from the vicinity of four UN positions at Alma ash Shab, Tibnin, Bras-hit, and At Tiri. All UNIFIL positions remain occupied and maintained by the troops. (please note that I have added a dash to Bras-hit so that the name will display)
Hezbollah, then, is firing from positions very close to UN positions. This is standard operating procedure for them, as they know that the Israelis will be reluctant to strike back at such positions. But reluctant doesn't mean they won't
Your theory about a 'trigger happy squaddy' doesn't hold water, in part because the sort of gun needed for this kind of thing takes more than one or two people in the crew. On top of that, gunnery crews are often given coordinates, and rarely do they know 'Oh, that's a UN post'--these weapons are loaded and fired outside of visual range of the target, sometimes up to ten miles. Heavy artillery and all that...
Thus, the other alternative your theory presents would be that the Israeli military itself gave orders to strike the UN observers. How would that possibly aid Israel in attaining their military goal, the elimination of Hezbollah as a threat? If anything, it would make such a goal more difficult to attain.
If you want anecdotal evidence, I caught a clip on the radio from an interview today with Canadian General General Lewis Mackenzie, who had recently spoken with the Canadian stationed there. He commented that the soldier stationed there had said the increasingly close Israeli strikes were a 'tactical necessity.' Why? Because Hezbollah forces were using the position for cover.
As for why Israel is doing this, it's quite simple: the nascent Lebanese government is unable to project force into the southern end of Lebanon, thus Hizbollah has been able to metastasize as a military threat there; Israel sees Hezbollah as an existential threat. The failure of the new Lebanese government to keep Hizbollah in check has culminated with Israel deciding that they must do it themselves--as recent events have proved, Hizbollah has a) been stockpiling weapons and b) has openly hostile intentions toward the state of Israel (i.e. the kidnappings and
daily cross-border rocket attacks that have been going on for years). The Israeli government decided that they could no longer maintain the status quo, Hezbollah provoked them, and they are using the opportunity to try to eliminate Hezbollah as a military force. As for the kidnapping itself, that strikes home with many of the Israelis because
all Israeli citizens are required to serve in the military at some point.
Facts. Sexy sexy facts.
