Don't the Lebanese have any right to defend their lives against attack?

[bigtree]

To Many in a Town Under Attack, Militiamen Are Defenders

Published: August 3, 2006

KAFR KILA, Lebanon, Aug. 2 —

“How could you stay silent when you see your land burn and your children get killed?” said Mr. Yahia, who said he was a platoon commander with the local (Amal) defense force. “The whole population here is resisting.”


Despite the fighting and shelling, and the repeated warnings that Israeli troops and armor were gathering for a concerted push in this area, some residents have stayed: perhaps a hundred noncombatants are left, maybe a few more. Some who lived on the outer edge of town have moved to houses closer to the center. “We hear the bombs, and we know they keep falling here, and here, and here,” said Leila Hussein Chit, a widow who has moved her five children to her sister’s home in the center of town. She says she cannot leave, even to a neighboring village: “It’s a close hop, but we still can’t hop it.”

Jawad Fares, 70, a wiry farmer, said the Israeli infantry and Hezbollah guerrillas had battled near his house, at the town’s northern edge. While he spoke, artillery shells kept pounding at the ridge above.

“They were so close that if I had a gun, I could have shot at them,” he said. He said the Israeli artillery was firing phosphorus shells at the town’s groves and orchards to burn the hill and force people out. He said he had decided to stay because he owned a water pump and did not want to leave his neighbors without water.

“They are burning our crops and our trees to turn us into refugees,” he said. “They want to do with us what they did with Palestinians in 1948.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/world/middleeast/03vi...

[Erika]

1. And our taxes are paying for the destruction of Lebanon

It is immoral that W and Rice refuse to demand a cease fire. He/she wants Lebanon fire scorched before he/she or the Zionists are willing to call a cease fire.

How many more pics of the dead innocent Lebanese?

[JackNewtown]

10. Why do they hate us?

[bigtree]

16. Hate is a family value

for the Bush crime family

[Kagemusha]

2. They're free to exercise that right against better armed invaders

and die trying.

[bigtree]

3. or just lay down and die

pathetic

[Erika]

4. Yes it is pathetic

W is pro-choice when it comes to killing of Muslims and Arabs. His choice is yes.

[Kagemusha]

5. I have to admit, very well said.

Too bad too.

[Miss Chybil]

8. You're right, and it's all in the plan. nt

[breakaleg]

6. what horrible choices....

you either fight, which is your right. even though in the end you know you'll lose.

or you allow them to invade your country and steal your land.

both prospects are demoralizing.

What will happen is the people will grow angry and throw their support Hezbollah's way. And then we'll have more of the same.

[Blackthorn]

7. Which...

explains why some people feel the need to strap explosives to themselves. At the very least, they are dying on their terms.

[mom cat]

17. As much as I disagree with suicide bombs, They are far less lethal

than cluster bombs,phosphorus bombs, napalm, Depleated uranium and nukes. Desperate people do desparate things in the face of brutality. I do not really know if I could hold on to my firm pacifism if I lived under the type of oppression as the Palestinians and the type of brutal warfare as the Lebanese and the Iraqis.

[breakaleg]

22. while...

I don't agree with that as an option. I can certainly understand how they can be driven to such extremes. I see it as they are using the only weapon they have access to - their bodies, their lives.

again, not that I agree with it.

[JackNewtown]

9. How much did ALPAC give to our leaders?

Oh wait...there is no ALPAC. No bribe? No rights!

[Tom Joad]

11. There is a AIPAC. go to www.stopAIPAC.org

[w4rma]

12. Nope, sorry. Just wait for the bombs and die quietly.

[atfqn]

13. Oh yes they have the right to defend themselves.

And they probably will, once they stop burying their children. I am also sure Hizbollah will be ready when that time comes to offer aid and equipment in their time of anguish and sorrow.

[stray cat]

14. Does Israel?

[bigtree]

15. bugaboo

that determination has already been made. Israel is being allowed to continue their assault on Lebanon without sanction or any effective rebuke from the US or the international community.

It seems the 'peacekeeping' force they are working on is to be little more than an extension of the Israeli force that's done most of the killing of innocents in this madness. Now Israel says they want time to acheive 'victory' over Hizbollah before they agree to a cease fire. Not many observers believe that's possible. At the rate they're going, Israeli airstrikes could double the number of innocents killed without any progress in eliminating the threat from Hizbollah. The killings of Lebanese citizens so far have had little noticible effect on Hizbollah's ability to launch rockets into Israel. It doesn't seem that the Lebanese the Israeli are killing with their airstrikes have anything at all to do with the attacks on Israel outside of geography.

I don't see how Israel's actions are contributing to their 'defense', rather the casualties they are inflicting on innocent Lebanese portend an increase in resentment and reprisals from those who have no way to defend themselves against the misguided 'defense' of Israel.

I'm not looking for the Lebanese to respond in kind. I just want the international community to come between Israel and the Lebanese to stop them from their reckless assaults which are killing Lebanese by the hundreds. 600 plus today.

As for Hizbollah, I don't expect much from them as they continue their mindless, murderous campaign. But I expect more from governments and individuals who profess to be so concerned with the loss of innocent civilian lives.

[BuyingThyme]

24. Not against fake rockets.

[Lurking Dem]

25. So the 8 people killed today

were killed with fake rockets?

[BuyingThyme]

26. No, the ones Israel lied about when they started this slaughter.

The ones that never existed.

You know, the ol' WMD routine.

[Lurking Dem]

27. Gotta link?

[Jim Sagle]

29. Oh yes they DID exist. And everybody goddamn well knows it.

[ComerPerro]

18. No, quite simply. No in our modern world

They only way you can engage in warfare without being labled a murderer or terrorist is to be on the winning side and the side that has more advanced weaponry.

[bigtree]

19. right on target

Remember, though, that's also Hizbollah's assumption. They apparently believe that they can intimidate and dictate with the force of their violence as well.

[ComerPerro]

20. They obviously belive that, otherwise they wouldn't act as they do

and that's what people need to remember.

We have a tendency to demonize terrorists for the same crimes that we praise governments for.

And, since we are caught up in our own war on terror, it is a habit of Americans now to believe that terrorists kill simply because they love killing.

Usually this line of crap is spread by the "you can't negotiate with terrorists" crowd because they are lazy and inept.

[Threedifferentones]

21. They have the right

but unfortunately they lack the might.

Isn't life great

[McCamy Taylor]

23. 90% of casualties in modern war are civilians, 1/2 those are children

according the the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Civilians have no ability to defend themselves. These are almost always poor people, often agrarian, who are caught in the crossfire as two sides battle over disputed territory. Some die from bombs. Others from famine, disease.

The only time anyone in the US or Europe really gives a damn is when it is white people dying, like in the WTC. Then, Americans are outraged at civilian deaths. How many of the same Americans are watching the deaths in Lebanon and nodding their heads and saying "Israel has a right to defend itself, and if that means blowing up Muslim and Christian babies in another country, it is really Hezbollah's fault for existing in the first place."? Get Americans used to this kind of thinking and pretty soon you can get them to go along with "Gas prices are too high in the US. Venezeulans are just gonna have to give up their democracy and liberty and lives so that we can gain control of their oil fields so that we can afford to drive our Hummers again. What is good for the US economy is good for world security."

[malaise]

28. The Israelis are behaving

like desperate barbarian bullies.
I dare them to try and take the Litani river.

Interesting take on this crisis

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D259C343-ED88-4C...