Please, no more rhetoric from anyone about how Israel doesn't target civilians. They do and they are. And if they didn't target civilians, the fact remains that they are killing them at a breathtaking pace.

Two major arguments always crop up in the pro-Israel responses in the letters section: one, that Israel should be supported because it is a democracy, a haven of sanity in an insane region, a responsible and righteous actor in the Middle East who represents the values that we in the West believe in. And, two, that the Israelis are free to act as recklessly and violently as they want because that is what the Arabs (who in particularl rarely matters) do, and that Israel can and should act as ruthlessly as possible because that is what the enemy, supposedly, would do.

But you can't have it both ways. You can't at once reap praise for being a righteous nation and also have the leeway to respond as viciously as possible. You can't be a symbol of virtue while you bomb innocent people. Israel is either a virtuous democracy or it is the modern Sparta. It can't be both.

Across the globe, undeclared wars and internal armed conflicts have reached an unprecedented number. There have been more than 250 major wars since the end of World War II, resulting in over 23 million casualties. Modern warfare is no longer confined to battlefields; around the world, non-combatants are in the direct line of fire, suffering greatly and becoming the anonymous and undercounted casualties of violent conflicts. In today’s wars, 90 percent of casualties are civilians, 75 percent of whom are women and children; a century ago, 90 percent of war casualties were male soldiers. [emphasis mine]

I already knew that women and children suffered disproportionately in war, but these stats that I came across last week really bring it home. How can this possibly be the most effective way to respond to terrorists? And how is our presence in Iraq any different?

http://www.womenforwomen.org/why.htm

It doesn't scare me anymore.

Fuck Israel.

Fuck all the Arabs, too. None of those Middle East warmongers and haters have a fucking clue.

I say we give them 24-hours notice and then drop the big on on Jerusalem and the Kaaba. Then let them fight all they want over the rubble. If they can't share, we take away their playground. End of problem.

All this bullshit over whose god is right, when god doesn't even exist.

Freddie deBoer writes:

Please, no more rhetoric from anyone about how Israel doesn't target civilians. They do and they are. And if they didn't target civilians, the fact remains that they are killing them at a breathtaking pace.

If it was Israel's primary desire to target civilians, they could coat all of Lebanon in a sea of fire, and kill everyone there who wasn't underground, and even many who were, without even resorting to their nuclear arsenal.

They give advance warning of bombings to give civilians a chance to clear the area.

So far, over 200 civilians have been killed in Lebanon. Do you really think that Israel couldn't kill more than that, if that was their intention?

The article notes a 10-1 ratio, since the fighting started, but how many Israelis have been killed by Hezbollah since the unilateral year 2000 withdrawal from Lebanon, after which Hezbollah continued to deliberately target civilians in various terrorist campaigns?

But you can't have it both ways. You can't at once reap praise for being a righteous nation and also have the leeway to respond as viciously as possible.

If you really think Israeli actions thus far amount to "as viciously as possible," you have absolutely no knowledge of history, and no moral compass.

Israel is in the process of ruining a country and killing hundreds of innocent people who are not in Hezbollah. They are killing innocent people, they know they are killing innocent people, and they don't care. You are in effect saying that what they are doing is right because they could do so much worse. So as long as they only killed 70 people today, they're okay? If it was 700, well, that would be wrong. But 70! No big deal! Especially when they could kill so many more.

Israel is knowlingly and intentionally killing civilians. Read this article, or any of the hundreds of others out there describing the bloodshed. You are rationalizing the murder of hundreds of people who have never fired a rocket or shot a gun or launched a bomb. And something is wrong with my moral compass?

The killing machine (paid part and parcel by the US) unleashed - to no avail. It hasn't worked to solve the problem before so what makes anyone think that it'll work now. You will always find a patriot to fend off foreign invaders, to free his land from occupiers. Get rid of one, and shortly another pops up - I thnk they're called freedom fighters.

Watching the present events only proves that the Israeli nation is amoral. I am sick and tired of the Israelis taking the moral high ground. They are responsible for their own predicament.

This whole situation disgusts me.

They are killing innocent people, they know they are killing innocent people, and they don't care. You are in effect saying that what they are doing is right because they could do so much worse.

Liar. I said no such thing, and implied no such thing.

You claimed civilians were being "targeted." Your words, not mine.

Please, no more rhetoric from anyone about how Israel doesn't target civilians. They do and they are.

Civilians are being hit, but not targeted. Israel is trying to minimize civilian casualties, which are a byproduct of every war, and in fact were much higher before the precision weapons and morality of today.

In point of fact, it is infrastructure that is being targeted, and with advance warning to the civilians who may be caught in the crossfire.

You further say that:

Israel is knowlingly and intentionally killing civilians

Again, you state that it is Israel's intent to kill civilians, which is just a lie.

Yes, I said you have no moral compass, because you can't distinguish between targeting civilians and targeting infrastructure with advance warning to civilians.

You say:

Read this article, or any of the hundreds of others out there describing the bloodshed.

I did read the article. It made me sick to my stomach. But I put the blame where it belongs, on Hezbollah. They are the ones who continue to purposefully target civilians, and hide in civilian areas, using babies as human shields. They are the war criminals.

Even the author, who is on the ground, made no such allegation. You did. And now you're putting words in my mouth, and his.