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<strong>Written By:</strong> Sgt_ShockNAwe
<strong>Date:</strong> 2006-08-02 11:54:00
<a href="/article/115408848-watching-two-different-wars">Article Link</a>

Back in DC, watching Lebanon through American camera lenses, the centre of the action seemed to be Haifa. CNN, for example, sent two of its top anchors, Miles O'Brien and Wolf Blitzer, to the Israeli port city. Much of the morning news was devoted to showing O'Brien scurrying in and out of shelters when the air raid sirens sounded. Another correspondent was sent on patrol with a Haifa ambulance crew to look for casualties. On the morning I was watching, the crew only came across a man who had a fatal heart attack as a result of the rockets. The paramedics' attempts to save him were shown.

This emphasis on Israeli casualties relative to Lebanese was taken to its breathtaking extreme by Charles Krauthammer, a conservative columnist on the Washington Post, who described the Hizbullah rocket attacks as "perhaps the most blatant terror campaign from the air since the London blitz."

From Haifa, the television news typically shifts to the border and to correspondents covering the Israeli army (CNN has another of its leading men, John Roberts, stationed there), who have supplied most of the news on the fighting in south Lebanon.

<a href="http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/julian_borger/2006/08/post_279.html">http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/julian_borger/2006/08/post_279.html</a>







[Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on August 3, 2006]

   

Here's a link to a map of Lebanon that shows all the airstrikes that have occured since the start of the recent Israeli invasion.<br />
<br />
Israel's "measured" response is the complete destruction of Lebanon's infrastructure. It has not been limited to the south at all, as our media would have us believe.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://maps.samidoun.org/Lebanon_Map_July12-28.jpg">http://maps.samidoun.org/Lebanon_Map_July12-28.jpg</a><br />
<br />
Notice that not a single port city or town has been spared. Check out the list of targets in the textbox.<br />
<br />
Now remember that the Qana massacre was just that, a massacre, and not a self-defense strike. Although I've seen/heard no mention of this in the western media (yet), Israel has been forced to admit that there were NO rockets fired from Qana nor where there ANY reported Hizbolla activities there. Hizbolla had been reported active in the area several days before the massacre, but nothing was noted since then.<br />
<br />
Qana was bombed to punish the locals for having Hizbolla in the area - a reprisal worthy of Nazi Germany.<br />
<br />
<br />

   

"This emphasis on Israeli casualties relative to Lebanese was taken to its breathtaking extreme by Charles Krauthammer, a conservative columnist on the Washington Post, who described the Hizbullah rocket attacks as "perhaps the most blatant terror campaign from the air since the London blitz.""

HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! ....... etc.

It’s amazing that fools like this get air time and even more amazing that people can take them seriously. This idiot should be laughed out of his job.


Mike
Winnipeg

   

His comparison is perhaps more accurate than people realize, but more accurately should be compared to the V-1 and V-2 rocket campaign that Nazi Germany launched in it's death throws after the Normandy invasion in 1944.

Both involve the projection of hundreds of crude rocket projectiles at an enemy's civilian infrastructure.

Both involve two nations at war. Make no mistake, this is not Israel against terrorists, this is Israel vs Lebanon, Round 2, continued from 1982.

Both involve one badly beaten and inferior force (in 1944, Germany was nearly bombed into the stone age and facing huge armies from east and west. They wanted conditional surrender but were not given it. They had no chance of winning. The rockets they launched were launched as last ditch terror weapons). By comparison, Lebanon also, has no chance of winning, and Hezbollah's weapons are last ditch terror weapons that will not stop Israel. Hezbollah (and Hitler) are launching them for one simple reason.

They have them. May as well use them.

The final comparison is the sheer uselessness of them. By the middle of 1944, 90% of all flying bombs launched by Germany were shot down by artillery before they even reached their targets. They still managed to kill approx. 1 person per rocket. Hezbollah's attack is even worse than this. Despite few if any (anyone know?) intercepts on the rockets in mid-flight, it still takes about 20 rockets on average to kill one Israeli civilian. Not even worth doing, imo, considering the massive retaliation that occurs on the village that the rockets come from.

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“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous, the essential act of warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labour”

   

Maybe Hizbullah's aim isn't to see how many civilians they can kill, but simply to demonstrate what they've got and that they're not going away.

(And also to change the balance of power in Iran's favour, which they're accomplishing.)

   

A quick look at the specs:

Katyusha payload: 22kg
V-2 payload: 1000kg

The V-2 was a liquid-fuel rocket that was the basis of the US space program. The Katyusha has more in common with your local hobby rocket. A real army would only use those if desperate.

Not quite comparable.

   

The Nazis had the full production capability of a fully industrialized nation. Hezbolla has Hakim's garage.

But the Katyusha is designed as a terror weapon, as the warhead is designed the same way as a traditional car bomb or bomb vest. It's packed with nails and bits of metal, to do the maximum damage possible, but only ocassionally killing. It's a terror weapon, not a tactical one, just the same as a V1 or V2.

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"I think it's important to always carry enough technology to restart civilization, should it be necessary." Mark Tilden

   

“His comparison is perhaps more accurate than people realize, but more accurately should be compared to the V-1 and V-2 rocket campaign that Nazi Germany launched in it's death throws after the Normandy invasion in 1944.”

The comparison is not the least bit accurate. You’ve shifted the topic to the V-1 and V-2 rocket attacks. Fair enough, but that wasn’t what this half wit reporter was talking about. The only possible comparison that can be made to the London blitz is the Israeli bombing of Lebanon. That comparison is thin but more accurate than the reverse.

The London blitz, as I’m sure you know, was the sustained carpet bombing of a major city. There is no comparison at all.

Mike
Winnipeg

   

I was mainly comparing it to the V-1 program, actually. They were very cheap 'hobby' weapons compared to the V-2, which was never more than a big expensive toy for the big scientists, so really, a suped-up hobby if you will.

The V-1 achieved a much more extensive kill ratio, about 1 civilian per missile, than the V-2, which was far too expensive and killed far fewer people.

(src: 'The Mares Nest' by David Irving)

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“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous, the essential act of warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labour”

   

Yes, I agree with that, and I agree with the core of your argument, that he is over-inflating the attacks on Israel and downplaying the Israeli response.

Hezbollah is achieving nothing with it's rockets except scaring Israelis and reducing Israeli anti-war demonstrations. I'm sure the Israeli police are even turning on the air-raid sirens for 'false alarms' whenever there is a protest, to make the protesters run for cover.

My own comparision is based on:

- Israel and Lebanon are at war. Not Israel and Hezbollah, as Fox News would have you believe. Israel and Lebanon.
(same as Great Britian and Germany in WWII)

- Lebanon is vastly inferior to Israel in terms of military capability.
(same as Germany versus Great Britain by the time of the Normandy invasion in 1944)

- Lebanon is allowing Hezbollah, their home-grown terrorist org/social services committee/paramilitary branch of the Lebanese army to use their rockets to attack Israel.
(same as Hitler giving the green light to commence rocket bombardment of England after the start of the Normandy invasion. The production wasn't ready, the weapons were not quite ready, but he gave the green light, because it was all they had, a symbolic act of defiance)

- The Hezbollah rockets are having no effect really, on destroying Israel or inflicting any damage.
(same as the V-1 and V-2 programs launched against England in 1944 and 1945. They were abysmal failures. The V-1 flying bomb was too slow, allowing anti-aircraft guns to shoot it down, and even fighter interception. The V-2 was too expensive and built in too few numbers.)

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“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous, the essential act of warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labour”

   

Certainly Hezbollah rockets are just a token gesture, especially at this point in the “war”. I think we are discussing parallel issues and are in agreement.

You may find this analysis of the situation by Greg Palast interesting. I think he brings up some great points, especially the political ramifications of this conflict on the various players. (Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah)

Mike
Winnipeg

   

Opps, forgot the attachment.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.gregpalast.com/blood-in-beirut-7505-a-barrel#more-1466">http://www.gregpalast.com/blood-in-beirut-7505-a-barrel#more-1466</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Mike

   

oh, yes, the oil factor. I just can't go there at the moment. Believing that the entire world is ran by the oil corporations is too simplistic, but they are a factor. Besides, I'd have to slit my wrists or go blow up a refinery or something.

I also do not think that the Israeli Prime Minister can pee just fine without the White House's approval. He often uses the US flag for toilet paper, in fact.

I also do not believe that Iran is controlling Hezbollah. Yes, Hezbollah is clearly being supplied with spanky neato rockets, coming in through Syria, btw, not Iran, but Hezbollah is far from a 'street gang' as this guy suggests. They are the galvanized resistance of Lebanon, the 'blowback' to the Israeli invasion of 1982. They give the people hope against their sworn zionist enemy, and they also apparently provide a not-too-shabby social program.

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“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous, the essential act of warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labour”

   

Fair enough. <br />
<br />
For me the article’s most interesting points have to do Hezbollah’s declining influence in Lebanon, and Hamas being forced into softening their position concerning Israel. That is obviously gone. It will be hard-line from now until who knows when.<br />
<br />
Israel’s Prime Minister may be able to pee just fine without the White House’s approval but they sure won’t be able to drop as many bombs. (This could verge into some bad toilet humour about now.) If the White House wanted Olmert to stop they could withhold arms shipments or threaten to break arms agreements, which of course will never happen. Then the conflict would end very soon.<br />
<br />
As for oil, this explains why the conflict is happening now, why it’s so excessive and why the US and Britain have absolutely no interest in stopping this violence before Lebanon’s infrastructure is destroyed. Energy is one of the keys to understanding almost all of what is happening in the Middle East now and in the years to come.<br />
<br />
This meeting of Oil executives and politicians occurred on the same day as the bombing started. This “coincidence” seems overwhelmingly significant. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20060726&articleId=2824">http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20060726&articleId=2824</a><br />
<br />
Mike<br />
Winnipeg<br />
<br />
Don’t slit your wrists man, slit and oil executive’s wrists instead. (or something like that …….)<br />

   

"This meeting of Oil executives and politicians occurred on the same day as the bombing started. This “coincidence” seems overwhelmingly significant."

Coincidence is not causality. That is the crux of poorly constructed conspiracy theories.

The WTO Doha talks pretty much melted down the same day; doesn't mean the Oil Exec meeting cause it.

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"I think it's important to always carry enough technology to restart civilization, should it be necessary." Mark Tilden

   

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