I don't know what to say about this whole thing. Sharon is a long time butcher; my father called me anti-Semitic (in temple) because I said, re the Lebonese refugee camp massacres, that Israel was becoming what they were fighting against (eg like the Nazis). On the other hand, Arafat probably has never been anything more than a terrorist who wants to drive Israel into the sea.
On one hand, Jenin looks pretty bad. On the other hand, so did Stalingrad, Leningrad, etc. As you say, war is hell.
On one hand, the Israelis blocked ambulances. On the other hand, the PLO was using ambulances to transport terrorists and bombs; even the plot to get Poweell involved an ambulance. On the one hand, they probably didn't have to bulldoze Jenin. On the other hand, urban warfare is ugly, especially when the houses get booby trapped. The first responsibility of a commander is to the lives of his soldiers; maybe the second is to safeguard civilians, but not at the expense of your own people. If somebody is shooting at you from a building, take it out, one way or the other. Band of Brothers is on again; check out the action. If people are going to fight from their houses, they should either get their women and children out first, or regard them as warriors and expect them to die.
The whole thing is pretty fucked up.Both sides. Guerrilla war is bad.Urban guerilla war is bad. When you use civilians to fight it, you get lots of problems. Read some of the stuff that went on in 'Nam.
Somebody has got to stop first. My hunch is that Israel is, will then say (because of invasion, there will probably be a lull in homicide bombing while PLO regroups) "OK, they haven't attacked us in a week, let's talk".
Rat@ondawaytowork.com |
