the IDF did a tremendous job, the Fakestinian Occupation terrorist problem remains (and is now reassembling, rebuilding, and rearming) because of the politicians (both in Jerusalem and WashedUpDC) protecting (and reprovisioning) Hamas.
“Government, even in its best state, is a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable evil.”
Thomas Paine
As long as articles keep appearing around Israeli genocide and IDF killing of civilians I’ll keep posting this piece of reality about civilian deaths in warfare. The very fact Hamas and Hezbollah say they can count the number killed means these people were within the boundaries of their control. Any realistic appraisal of their behavior would see they consider civilians as so many biodegradable sandbags possessing utility as political props.
The idea of “bringing terrorists to justice” is a breathtaking mockery of any civilized understanding of justice. All four Geneva Accords deal with terrorist organizations and they find no sanctuary anywhere. The feral psychopaths of Hamas and Hezbollah never display the civility required for Geneva Convention definitions for militia, armed force, or volunteer corps, but are so dissociated from country or culture, so committed to butchery that they best match Webster’s definition for a virus. They are not insurgents or freedom fighters, and when captured, certainly not prisoners of war. These killers are not members of an organized resistance movement carrying arms openly, and they have no distinctive identifier. The Geneva Conventions place terrorists beyond the pale, discuss no limits in dealing with their depredations. So, their eradication would come closest to achieving meaningful justice.
The Geneva Conventions, which attempt to grasp rational, moral threads to apply during wars’ barbarity formed the basis for our operations. For my Navy experience helping to pulverize a major enemy base in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, I especially liked the obvious reading of Articles 28 and 29 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The VC were responsible for any civilian deaths in the base our ship shelled. Those civilians qualified as Protected Persons within the enemy’s physical control and could not be used to render certain points and areas immune from military operations. The Convention articles are as follows:
ART. 28. — The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations.
ART. 29. — The Party to the conflict in whose hands protected persons may be, is responsible for the treatment accorded to them by its agents, irrespective of any individual responsibility which may be incurred.
The passages furnished the basis for rules of engagement we followed when attacking a legitimate military target. The base the SEAL team identified in the U Minh Forest had been continuously used at least since the Vietnamese had fought the Japanese, so families of the VC would have been residents as well. Distance provided me with the blessing of avoiding the cleanup afterwards for the mess I helped create with our 445 rounds of 3”50cal. However, I am certain our task force was effective. We helped to permanently shatter the last intact VC main force unit, forcing it to surrender control the region.