A War Crime at Qana?

The Qana tragedy has intensified accusations that Israel's actions in Lebanon violate international law. Every death of an innocent person is extremely regrettable; but there is no evidence Israel has committed any war crimes. In contrast, Hezbollah, Iran and Syria have clearly violated international law in this conflict. Moreover, Israel's conduct compares favorably to how its most powerful accusers have behaved when their own interests have been threatened.

International law has three major prohibitions relevant to the Qana incident. One forbids deliberate attacks on civilians. Another prohibits hiding forces in civilian areas, thereby turning civilians into "human shields." A third prohibition, the proportionality restriction that Israel is accused of violating, involves a complicated and controversial balancing test.

Geneva Convention Protocol I contains one version of the proportionality test, the International Criminal Court Statute another; neither is universally accepted. As a result, the proportionality test is governed by "customary international law," an amalgam of non-universal treaty law, court decisions, and how influential nations actually behave. It does not hinge on the relative number of casualties, or the force used, however, but on the intent of the combatant. Under customary international law, proportionality prohibits attacks expected to cause incidental death or injury to civilians if this harm would, on balance, be excessive in relation to the overall legitimate military accomplishment anticipated.

[snip] The aircraft did not deliberately target civilians; but Hezbollah rockets are targeted at civilians, a clear war crime. U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland last week called on Hezbollah to stop its "cowardly blending" among women and children: "I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this." If Hezbollah used Lebanese civilians in Qana as "human shields," then Hezbollah, not Israel, is legally responsible for their deaths.

Then all of the Hezzies actions would be war crimes...the press is showing the face of evil every time they try to be Hezzie apologists and/or Israeli critics...

That certainly seems to be the case. Hezbollah is operating so far outside "international law" that it would take pages to document it all. On the other hand, as far as I can tell (as a layman reading through the Geneva Conventions), Israel has scrupulously adhered to them. Israel appears (to me) to have "international law" completely on their side, but you'd never know that from the myopic coverage of Old Media.

Everywhere you look in the Geneva Conventions, Hezbollah is guilty of war crimes.

They are, in the strict sense of the word, outlaws.

A ref separates two fighters who are in a bloody boxing match.

We can end the war between Hizb'allah and the IDF by separating people from those two groups. We can encourage them to emigrate to other countries of the world.

I'm sure that the USA will gladly allow some members of the IDF to enter our country

Now.... Who will take some Hizb'allah immigrants? Would France or Spain like a few Hizb'allah immigrants? How about Qatar or Saudi Arabia? Any takers?

Yo!! World leaders! Are you interested in encouraging Hizb'allah to relocate to your country?

I hate to pick nits my good man but I'm rapidly tiring of hearing Hizbolla referred to as a 'terrorist organization'. They are not.

They are part and parcel of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

They are trained by the Iranian government.

They are supplied by the Iranian government.

They are paid by both the Syrian and Iranian governments.

There are really only two ways one could possibly regard Hizbolla under the GC. One is as an 'irregular militia'. That one is right out as the GC requires that an irregular militia be composed of indigenous forces answering to a clear chain of command.

The other is as soldiers out of uniform carrying out indiscriminate attacks against civilian targets. That makes them war criminals who can be subjected to summary execution after a speedy field Courts Martial.

I caught those programs on THC and I completely agree with you. Some have compared our leaders to Neville Chamberlain croaking about 'peace in our time' while clutching worthless bits of paper.

I disagree. We have the opposite problem. We are at war yet we refuse to prosecute it as vigorously and as violently as wars must be prosecuted in order to win swift, decisive, unquestionable victories.

After 9-11 President Bush said "If you harbor terrorists or aid terrorists we shall treat you like terrorists."

Well Mr. President we have two regimes in the Middle East who are not only doing that, they are openly crowing about it. Yet, you do nothing. No, strike that. You do worse than nothing.

You negotiate with them. You give them a legitimacy they have neither earned nor deserve. All they merit is a rapid and violent stamping out with whatever level of violence is required to bring a speedy end to the matter.

It's time we offer the Israelis whatever assets they require and offer to reduce the bulk of the Syrian and Iranian armies and their bases to pink mist and rubble.

It's also high time we stop treating these goons as legitimate national leaders and sparing them from personal consequences of their actions. This crap about Assad and Ahmenidjad being 'civilian leaders' is foolish.

They need to know that they are targets on a very personal level.

Once the homes and families of a few Iranian Mullahs vanish in a high order detonation the rest of them will calm down. They can't all be hiding in their bunkers 24 X 7.

Turn Assad and his 'cabinet' into quivering gobs of meat stuck to the walls and Hizzbolla will quickly lose its bluster. Let the UN be damned if they don't like it.

Sorry to pop in your general direction but watching the Israelis deal with the massacre of a bunch of civilians and this subhuman thug masqerading as a person crow about it have pushed me over the edge.

It's way past time for these monsters to die.

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