Quote:
Originally posted by Kevin Andrew Murphy:
Because from what I'm seeing, Israel isn't interested in outright genocide but is interested in coercion. To that end, you kill some people to show you mean business and could kill a lot more if you felt like it. Classic terrorism.
As for the kidnapped Israeli soldiers, what makes you think they're in Lebanon at this point? Or that they're even alive, for that matter? It's not that I don't feel for them, but there's something truly sick and wrong about killing a thousand people in an attempt to rescue two.
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Oh, Kevin.
Terrorism is such an inherently emotive, value-laden term. Don't you mean it's classic
Fighting, or classic
Freedom-Fighting? Wait, sorry, not if it's Israel.
Take a look at the number of munitions expended in the last month, then, and tell me if it's
A. More than you would need to kill some subset of 1,000 individuals (whatever the true number is,) or
B. Less than you would need to kill some subset of 1,000 people. My point is, the
purpose of Israel's actions remains the same -- actions against Hezbollah -- and the horror of war remains constant. If anything it becomes more horrific because the enemy Israel fights, cynically diperses resources throughout Lebanon.
Again, although it's good for the "I hate Israel" club, your conjecture as to state of mind requires something like evidence to be taken seriously elsewhere. The
real PTOCs (Purposeful Targeters of Civilians, in deference to adherents of the argument from semantics so recently seen here,) announce themselves as engaging in the tactic in the Middle East. Otherwise, the movement stalls. I am certain in some places the PTOCs prefer to remain anonymous, but in the Middle East, there have even been multiple PTOC claimants to a single murder. Your true PTOC relishes in results like what you have linked to.
Israel issues no such pronouncement gleefully claiming the deaths of non-combatants. Israel does not warn the "Christian citizens", or the "Non-Arab citizens," Israel warns
all citizens ahead of time (in contrast to Nasrallah's calls to the "Arab citizens of Haifa.") Israel has shown by her actions, she is not interested in Civilian bloodshed. Hezbollah as shown by its actions and its own pronouncements that it does not distinguish between killing combatants and non-combatants.
And of course, for the Israel hate society,
defending yourself against terrorism,
is terrorism -- but terrorism itself is not.
Come back through the looking glass, Kevin -- it really is a good place to be, although it is somewhat less of a playground for a vivid imagination.
On a side note addressed to those who do not like the words "Terrorist" and "Terrorism": I'll stay out of that muck briefly, since PTOC is more precise. But lest the likes of KAM overwhelm their counterparts on the thinking side of this conversation with propaganda --
our poor brains!!! -- I'll go back to the more generally accepted nomenclature shortly if my value neutral "PTOC" meets with no acceptance.
Dan