Monday, July 17, 2006

Killing Children


I am going to hammer on this until it is resolved. There is absolutely no justification for killing children. None. We were wrong to do so in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we were wrong to do so in Vietnam and more recently in Iraq, the insurgency is wrong to do so in Iraq, Hizbollah is wrong to do so in Northern Israel, and the Israeli are wrong to do so in Southern Lebanon. But the latter is the worse for the following reasons:
According to witnesses and photographs from the scene of the worst incident, an Israeli missile incinerated a car and a small truck full of families leaving their Lebanese border village of Marwaheen near Tyre after the Israeli army used loudhailers to tell residents they had just hours to go. Pictures showed charred bodies of children strewn across the road.

UN peacekeepers recovered the bodies. Half the passengers were children or teenagers, according to medical sources. It was the deadliest single strike since Israel started an air campaign against Lebanon after two of its soldiers were captured by Hizbollah on Wednesday.

Relatives gathered at a hospital to identify the dead said they came from two families - Abdallah and Ghanem.

Around 100 residents sought shelter at a nearby UN base, but left after officials were unable to confirm the warning by Israel, a UN spokesman said.

Other residents had tried later to leave and were killed in the missile strike, the spokesman said, adding that the Lebanese authorities had asked the UN to help evacuate about 160 people remaining in Marwaheen. They would be relocated in the morning. Relatives blamed the UN for the deaths, pelting peacekeepers with stones when they arrived with the bodies after the strike. (emphasis added)
This is not the action of a civilized government. It should not be tolerated. Where is the apology from Israel? (and don't throw 'where is the apology from Hizbollah at me' because it does not signify.)

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