Posted on 08/25/2006 10:13:45 AM PDT by knighthawk
When rendering judgment on the recent warfare in the Mideast, the souls at Human Rights Watch did sometimes scold Hezbollah, when Hezbollah was being particularly naughty. Bad Hezbollah! the rights watchers clucked, and they waggled their fingers and sent Hezbollah to bed without supper. More regularly, though, they condemned Israel, and by now we've lost count of how many opportunities they pounced upon to convict the Israelis of "war crimes." The kindred souls at Amnesty International piled on, accusing the Israelis even of "war crimes that give rise to individual criminal responsibility."
War crimes. Yes, there are such things as war crimes. War crimes are what, for example, Saddam Hussein committed against tens of thousands of his own people. Human Rights Watch hasn't had much to say about that lately. The group has been too busy complaining about Saddam's inhumane sufferings at the hands of his brutish jailers who don't put enough Miracle Whip on his sandwiches, etc., etc.
But bombing positions from which rockets are being fired at you is not a war crime. It is an act of self-defense, and, in the recent conflict, Israel carried out, with admirable restraint and precision, the mission that was forced upon it. Roads, bridges and buildings were destroyed, but that is the unavoidable consequence when a heavily armed enemy establishes offensive operations among a civilian population. If you want to call something criminal, there it is.
Sometimes Human Rights Watch grudgingly concedes that oh, perhaps the Israelis really do have some sort of semi-right to defend themselves against predators. If only they'd lighten up about it and, you know, stop actually shooting at poor Hezbollah. And by the way, did you know that Israel deliberately murders women and babies?
Human Rights Watch was founded in 1978 as Helsinki Watch, an organization dedicated to monitoring civil liberties violations by Soviet-bloc governments. That was noble work, but it happened a long time ago. Of late, the group has descended into irresponsible geopolitical advocacy. What a shame, and what a tragic loss to reason, that Human Rights Watch today has all the moral authority of the UN Human Rights Council.
Also worth reading:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1689017/posts
The Geneva Convention has a provision which says that shotguns are not to be used in wartime since they violate the convention that a wound must be treatable. The US took much greif when it employed 2.54" rockets during Viet Nam which contained flechettes, (small dart like projectiles),
Of course the ball bearings in the Katsooskas are okay for the NY Slimes caonsiders Hamas and Hezbolah as PALIs!
Arg!
I cant believe this madde it past the chief propagandist er.. I mean editor
A classic political operation: infiltrate, neutralize, subvert.
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