Posted on 08/05/2006 2:37:21 PM PDT by blam
Stressed out and anxious in Beirut
By Hugh Sykes
BBC News, Beirut
For many in Beirut the bombing feels like collective punishment
People keep asking me, "Do you know when it will stop?"
I shrug my shoulders, and say: "Your guess is as good as mine."
Then they ask: "But Beirut - will they bomb Beirut again?"
"What would be the point?" I reply.
Then they bombed Beirut again.
Dozens of displaced children living in a school in a quiet neighbourhood near the city centre heard terrifying loud bangs in the middle of the night.
Four massive thumps one night, and six the next, as Israeli bombs or shells slammed into the ground a few kilometres away.
Or into the children's homes.
Their families fled with them from their apartments in the suburbs, before the first Israeli attacks in mid-July.
Most have not been back since. They hope and pray their flats are waiting for them to return - silent and gathering dust, but intact.
'Miscalculation'
People keep saying to me, "We are not Hezbollah - why are they bombing our homes?"
There are few who find the Israeli bombardment understandable
The Israelis say that these renewed attacks on Beirut are justified because they are targeting Hezbollah. But for the hundreds of thousands of people in this city who don't support Hezbollah it feels like collective punishment.
Hezbollah's primitive, unguided Katyusha rockets hit civilians too - although far fewer have died in Israel than have been killed in Lebanon by the massive Israeli munitions.
Many Lebanese readily agree that Hezbollah gravely miscalculated when they captured those two Israeli soldiers on 12 July - but now they go on to say: "We were never Hezbollah. But we are all Hezbollah now. The Israeli response is completely unjustified."
I have met some who curse Hezbollah, and who say the Israeli bombardment is understandable. Some, but not many.
And I don't think "But we are all Hezbollah now" is just talk. The more Israel destroys, the more supporters Hezbollah will be able to recruit.
'This is terrorism'
There is a widespread and deeply felt sense of grievance here that the majority of Lebanese are suffering for the continued existence of the military wing of Hezbollah - something their weak government was not in a position to do much about.
Uncertainty - and incomprehension that any of this is happening - is eroding energy here, and wearing people down.
Beirut streets are power-cut dark at night. Shops close early. Cafes and restaurants are struggling to survive, often serving barely one tenth of the usual number of customers.
Taxis apologise in advance in case they run out of petrol before they reach your destination.
And faces grow taut with exhaustion at the stress, and the fear of explosions.
Smoking hubble-bubble at a cafe one evening, I heard the sound of a fighter-bomber overhead.
A young man at the next table leaned over to me, gestured in the direction of the menacing rumble, and said: "This - this also is terrorism!"
For many in Beirut the bombing feels like collective punishment
No, that would be carpet bombing.
And the crazy woman will whine that it "isn't fair" as they haul her out and demolish her house as "uninhabitable."
"For many in Beirut the bombing feels like collective punishment"
When you sleep with dogs.....
Allowing a terrorist gang to run rampant, well reminds me a bit of Afghanistan. Being unable or unwilling to establish law and order in your own nation, or actively facilitating the perps, is a terrible thing. The consquences are almost always uniformly bad in every way.
Good. Then no worries about collateral damage.
I don't really see the problem here. Hezzies were VOTED in and were part of Lebanon's government. Ergo, when they attack and launch missile strikes against a neighboring nation it's called 'declaring war'.
Nation vs. nation.
Ya gets what ya vote for, dummies.
If these Beirutians feel terrorized and would like some relief, I have the perfect Idea:
They should all pick up a few belongings and head South. The Northern Israelis would be glad to put them up for a few weeks in their bomb shelters, where they could live and breath free from the threat of Isreali targeted bombing.
Then it would seem that we are targeting correctly, after all.
Stressed out and anxious in Beirut. What a foolish headline. Everyone on every side is stressed out and anxious in a war when near the action.
I believe an examination of the people in Israel would find the same condition in many of them.
That's not allowed...remember, Israel is the enemy.
So, which is it? They're either with or against terrorists but can't play the sides depending on the wind.
The bombing of Beirut will stop when the people who live there put a stop to Hisballah using it to launch rockets into Israel. This is a no brainer.
"We were never Hezbollah. But we are all Hezbollah now. The Israeli response is completely unjustified."
Damn make up your minds you morons! Now you know why the bombing will not stop. You aren't and never were but you are. If Mel Gibson, as an actor, can't convince the ADL he is not an Anti Semite, these idiots sure as hell will never convince the Israeli army they are not all terrorists!
Also by Mr. Sykes, The uneasy Republicans.
Does anyone see a pattern?
William Coleman, like several of the uneasy Republicans I met, told me he will grit his teeth and vote for that other Vietnam War veteran, John Kerry.
Sleep with dogs, wake up with fleas. WHAT DON'T WE UNDERSTAND HERE?!
Meanwhile Chomsky, Zinn and others ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1835915,00.html
The BBC is blatantly leftwing, opposed not only to conservatism, but to the West as a whole. It hasn't met a dictator or terrorist it doesn't like yet.
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