Posted on 07/31/2006 12:41:44 AM PDT by KTM rider
The words of a Canadian United Nations observer written just days before he was killed in an Israeli bombing of a UN post in Lebanon are evidence Hezbollah was using the post as a "shield" to fire rockets into Israel, says a former UN commander in Bosnia.
Those words, written in an e-mail dated just nine days ago, offer a possible explanation as to why the post -- which according to UN officials was clearly marked and known to Israeli forces -- was hit by Israel on Tuesday night, said retired Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie yesterday.
The strike hit the UN observation post in the southern Lebanese village of El Khiam, killing Canadian Maj. Paeta Hess-von Kruedener and three others serving as unarmed UN military observers in the area.
Just last week, Maj. Hess-von Kruedener wrote an e-mail about his experiences after nine months in the area, words Maj.-Gen. MacKenzie said are an obvious allusion to Hezbollah tactics.
"What I can tell you is this," he wrote in an e-mail to CTV dated July 18. "We have on a daily basis had numerous occasions where our position has come under direct or indirect fire from both (Israeli) artillery and aerial bombing.
"The closest artillery has landed within 2 meters (sic) of our position and the closest 1000 lb aerial bomb has landed 100 meters (sic) from our patrol base. This has not been deliberate targeting, but rather due to tactical necessity."
Those words, particularly the last sentence, are not-so-veiled language indicating Israeli strikes were aimed at Hezbollah targets near the post, said Maj.-Gen. MacKenzie.
"What that means is, in plain English, 'We've got Hezbollah fighters running around in our positions, taking our positions here and then using us for shields and then engaging the (Israeli Defence Forces)," he said
(Excerpt) Read more at canada.com ...
Commentary: Weakness is Deadly
This represents a reversal of course for us....
Weakness Is Deadly
By John E. Carey
Monday, July 31, 2006
Yesterday, Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered a 48 hour “time out” in the air war against the terrorist enemy Hezbollah’s positions near Israel.
Big mistake.
Yesterday morning I interviewed a well connected Israeli expert on war, counter-terrorism and Hezbollah. After brief pleasantries, he opened with:
“Every Israeli regrets the loss of innocent lives.”
Then, he immediately continued, “A cease fire now, without achieving the strategic goals of the operation in Lebanon, would be an incomplete finish for Israel. In fact, a cease fire now would be dangerous to Israel and to all nations engaged in the war on terror.”
We fully appreciate the tragic circumstances of yesterday. Innocent women and children are being killed. But they are being killed by Hezbollah.
Hezbollah is using “human shields” the way a bank robber might grab your grandmother, forcing her at gunpoint to keep her frame in front of him as an absorber of oncoming police bullets.
This kind of shameful, despicable conduct is in character for those beneath contempt like Hezbollah. Why anyone who believes in a great religion like Islam would applaud, support or condone these craven acts desperation, cowardice and wanton disrespect for life escapes me.
So, Israeli combat pilots, who have been asked to defend their nation, and the entire free world in the war against terror, were told last night to go to sleep. Allow their targets to reform, regroup and reload. The pilots were shocked by the news: the decision obviously a political move disassociated from prosecuting war to victory.
In war, "politically correct" niceties are as damgerous as weakness.
Halting the air war is a stupid publicity stunt. If the U.S. participated in convincing Israel’s civilian leadership to take this action for humanitarian reasons; then the U.S. is complicit in any evil that may befall Israel as a result of taking the heat off the terrorist enemy Hezbollah.
In the “Principles of War,” as defined by the U.S. Army and subscribed by countless others; the first principle is Mass: “Concentrate combat power at the decisive place and time.”
We believe Israeli military officers may now be violating their own principles of war because they were ordered to do so by their civilian leaders.
Nobody can question that the civilian leaders in Israel have the authority to make such a decision and order. But they also must reap whatever they have sown in accountability at the end.
The world is fighting a war against terror. Ask the "survivor families."
Ask the "survivor families" of The World Trade Center, Pentagon, or Flight 93. Ask the "survivor families" of the Madrid train bombings on March 11, 2003. Ask the survivor families of the terror bombings in London on July 7, 2005. Ask the survivor families from countless other Hezbollah inspired terror actions against innocent and free people. Ask the families of the men and women lost, or badly injured, in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The survivor families are my shield in the righteousness of seeing this war on terror to the end. Any flinching, any wavering, any pause that allows the enemy even a breath without fear, is time wasted.
We did not want this war on terror. We did not choose it. The war on terrror has befallen us. We have to be up to the task or admit our weakness and decadence now. That is what Hezbollah is asking us to do.
So we call upon the leaders, all world leaders, to steel themselves to the fact that this may be a long and ugly war. Leaders like like Kofi Annan and Jacques Chirac, who often encourage terror: stand together. Make a stand. Decide to fight terror yourself, not just with platitudes but with concrete actions. We ask you to stand with those engaged in battle to win the war on terror. To stand with all freedom loving people everywhere.
But especially, we invite you world leaders to stand with the survivor families, not the terrorist.
The choice is simple and clear.
http://peace-and-freedom.blogspot.com/
The hezbos are using the entire country of Lebanon as a "shield". The UN doesn't care, either. They never did.
If it takes a nuclear strike or two to wake up the west, the reaction is going to be very ugly. It could go down in the history books as the 'great depopulation' and the question is only which side is going to be depopulated.
"From India, Philippines, Thailand, Bali to Nigeria, Somalia and the Balkans sooner or later the people of the west will finally understand that we face the gravest danger to humanity ever. Much greater than the Hitler and Japanese death cults put together, this one is more widespread than those ever were."
I am starting to agree with this....
http://peace-and-freedom.blogspot.com/
We did do this with communism and we have Cuba, North Korea, China and others all around the world as well as our own college campuses where it is still held in high esteem.
We will pay for not utterly destroying communism someday if we live that long.
Hezbollah was using the post as a "shield" to fire rockets into Israel, says a former UN commander in Bosnia....Hezbollah would use their own mothers as shields....The U.N. and Socialist Democratic Party in this country want to give these scumbags equal rights in negotiations with the Jewish State...forget about it!...just find 'em and kill 'em.
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