Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Decimated

Decimation was a form of extreme military discipline used by officers in the Roman Army to punish mutinous or cowardly soldiers. The word decimation is derived from Latin meaning "removal of a tenth."

A cohort selected for punishment by decimation was divided into groups of ten; each group cast lots, and the soldier on whom the lot fell was executed by his nine comrades, often by stoning or clubbing. The remaining soldiers were given rations of barley instead of wheat and forced to sleep outside of the Roman encampment.
Because the punishment fell by lot, all soldiers in the selected cohort were eligible for execution, regardless of rank or distinction.


A decimated Lebanese child.

Over 200 people have died in Lebanon, all but 13 of them civilians.

and: The violence in Lebanon has killed more than 200 people in Lebanon and at least 25 Israelis, most of them civilians. A family of eight Canadians visiting Lebanon was killed on Sunday.

Oh and this:
The Bush administration also has refused to yield to international calls to press Israel for a prompt end to its campaign against Hezbollah.

From here:
...warring parties are required to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians and civilian objects and to refrain from attacks that would disproportionately harm the civilian population or fail to discriminate between combatants and civilians. (emphasis added)

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