Letters to the Editor
cardshark
Published Letters: 146 Editor's Choice: 18
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Full text of Canadian observer Major Kruedener's report
[Read the article: The "hiding among civilians" myth]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Can be found here:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060718/mideast_lebanon_UN_060716/20060718
Noteable items:
(4) Team Sierra is currently observing both IDF/IAF and Hezbollah military clashes from our vantage point which has a commanding view of the IDF positions on the Golan mountains to our east and the IDF positions along the Blue Line to our south, as well as, most of the Hezbollah static positions in and around our patrol Base. It appears that the lion's share of fighting between the IDF and Hezbollah has taken place in our area. On the night of 16 July, at 2125 hrs, a large firefight broke out between the Hezbollah and the IDF near a village called Majidyye and lasted for one hour and 40 minutes.
He says that Hezbollah is operating "in and around our patrol Base." Hmmm.
He further goes on to say that both sides are engaging in "volatile" and "unpredictable" activities, and the he can no longer perform his normal patrols (indicating that at one time, he was able to perform his patrols, but that now, he cannot).
Then, just as I suspected, he says he is not authorized to say how close Hezbollah is:
This is all the information of a non-tactical nature that I can provide you. I cannot give you any info on Hezbollah position, proximity or the amount of or types of sorties the IAF is currently flying. Suffice to say that the activity levels and operational tempo of both parties is currently very high and continuous, with short breaks or pauses. Please understand the nature of my job here is to be impartial and to report violations from both sides without bias. As an Unarmed Military Observer, this is my raison d'etre.
He then ends by saying that IDF has been bombing very near the base, and that it is a "tactical necessity."
It's very clear that he can't come right out and tell us that Hezbollah has set up shop right near the UN position (for the appearance of "bias"). But he goes on to tell us anyway, without technically violating his raison d'etre.
What I can tell you is this: we have on a daily basis had numerous occasions where our position has come under direct or indirect fire from both artillery and aerial bombing. The closest artillery has landed within 2 meters of our position and the closest 1000 lb aerial bomb has landed 100 meters from our patrol base. This has not been deliberate targeting, but has rather been due to tactical necessity.
So, there is your context, KStone. I wonder if you will have the honesty to admit, at the very least, that the full report is quite suggestive of intentional human shielding by Hezbollah.
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Logic 101
[Read the article: The "hiding among civilians" myth]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Anyone familiar with basic principles of logic knows that it is impossible to prove a negative. In science we call it the null hypothesis. For example, it is impossible to prove scientifically that God does not exist. Prothero says:
But this claim is almost always false. My own reporting and that of other journalists reveals that in fact Hezbollah fighters [...] avoid civilians.
He is setting the bar pretty high for himself with that claim. You would therefore expect him to refute the numerous reports of Lebanese civilians who say otherwise. Instead, his next piece of "evidence" comes on page 2 of the article:
Off to the side, as we watch the Israelis pummel ridgelines on the outskirts of town, one of the political operatives explains that the fighters never come near the town, reinforcing what other Hezbollah people have told me over the years.
So now we have fuzzy anecdotal evidence, which "reinforces" what Prothero has learned from Hezbollah sources? This is evidence?
He further goes on to say:
[...] the Lebanese army, [...] would halt my trip and send me over to Tyre to get permission from a Hezbollah official before I could proceed, usually with strict limits on where I could go.
Every other journalist I know who has covered Hezbollah has had the same experience.
So, his access to the area is limited to the places where Hezbollah wants him to go, yet he expects us to consider his analysis authoritative?
His conclusion?
So the analysts talking on cable news about Hezbollah "hiding within the civilian population" clearly have spent little time if any in the south Lebanon war zone and don't know what they're talking about.
I looked thoroughly through Mr Prothero's "analysis," yet I found very little in the way of facts to support this conclusion, and lots in the way of anecdotal propoganda from Hezbollah itself. Maybe someone can enlighten me and point me to the parts of the article that prove Prothero's grandiose claim?
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We don't need your help
[Read the article: The "hiding among civilians" myth]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Achmed Al Vichy writes:
You folks are usually the first ones that invaders line up and shoot. If you can't be trusted to back the basic ideals and freedoms of your own societies then you certainly can't be trusted as collaborators with the new Jihad.
[sarcasm](Best Billy Bob accent) If anybody lines up anybody 'round heah, it'll be our good ol' boys who do it, not some ragheads with pea shooters.[/sarcasm]
Seriously though, invading America may be hazardous to your health. I'd recommend against it, comrade.
Oh, and by the way, what the hell are you talking about? Who is "you folks"?
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Would a Dem victory in the House be a good thing?
[Read the article: Democrats: Hope for the House, and good news on the Senate]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Face it, if the Dems win the house in November, then what we'll have is, in the immortal words of General Stockdale (Ross Perot's running mate, for those of you whippersnappers who don't remember) "GRIDLOCK!"
If the Repubinazis get another shot at the whole enchilada for 2 years, things will be so fucked up that we'll get the House, the Senate, and the Casa Blanco. Assuming those black boxes we vote with have a paper trail by then...