Dedicated to the Children of Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza

A Break

I don't know who reads this blog other than a few commentators, for which I am always grateful. Sometimes, and that sometime is now, the weight of the news just overwhelms the capacity for empathy. That usually means that one should take a break from ranting. I am not sure ranting isn't just self serving. However, we can't do much else other than donate money (to the U.N. and related organizations) and work for political candidates that might, in some far distant future, get us out of this tragic mess.

See you soon.

Revelations 2:25-27

And there will be things stranger than fiction in the world....

N.Korean leader Kim takes secretary as wife: Yonhap
Sat Jul 22, 2006 10:39 PM ET

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has taken his former secretary as his new wife, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Sunday, citing sources familiar with the country.

(snip)

She studied piano at the North's elite Pyongyang University of Music and Dance ......

"She is a cute woman rather than a beauty like the leader's previous wives or live-in women," another South Korean government source said.

Actually:


(pic from TBogg)

Now its up to W....

Precision Bombing with American Bombs

Two injured Lebanese boys are seen at the crowded Nejm Hospital while waiting for treatment at the southern Lebanon city of Tyre, Sunday, July 23, 2006. Villagers from the village of Et Tiri were evacuating their village in a convoy toward Tyre when they came under attack by an Israeli warplane . Several were injured including women and children. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

The Slow Trickle of Truth

Juan Cole this morning:

Sunday, July 23, 2006
War on Lebanon Planned for at least a Year

Matthew Kalman reveals that Israel's wideranging assault on Lebanon has been planned in a general way for years, and a specific plan has been in the works for over a year. The "Three Week War" was shown to Washington think tanks and officials last year on powerpoint by a senior Israeli army officer

(snip)

The Israelis tend to launch their wars of choice in the summer, in part because they know that European and American universities will be the primary nodes of popular opposition, and the universities are out in the summer. This war has nothing to do with captured Israeli soldiers. It is a long-planned war to increase Israel's ascendency over Hizbullah and its patrons.

On the other hand:

The SS took twelve prisoners out of Buchenwald and forced them to take poison, shot them after they had put on Polish uniforms. An SS Officer yelled in Polish into a radio that they had come to invade Germany, and then the SS fled.

On September 1, 1939, Hitler told the Nazi Reichstag that Poland had tried to invade Germany, and the Wehrmacht was returning fire since 5:45 AM. Actually, in a carefully planned and highly mobile attack codenamed Fall Weiss (Case White) planned by Generalfeldmarschall Walther von Brauchitsch, German land, sea, and air forces were moving rapidly into Poland

A Puzzlement

You know, it seems like nobody in the Cheney administration is surprised about the MidEast war. When you look at the magnitude of the reprisals against Lebanon for the capture of two soldiers, it becomes just absurd. Could it be that they knew about this all along? Could our client Israel be taking the heat off Afghanistan and Iraq? And, of course, the elections are coming.

No, No, No. I am not cynical.

The Demonic Cycle

One more instance of where we break the law: As usual, it is about money:

FRIDA BERRIGAN: Sure. Almost all of the weapons used by Israel are from the United States. There might be a couple French fighter planes that they’re using, but its F-16s made in Fort Worth, Texas; its Apache helicopters; its Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles; it’s all from the United States. So you have this real disconnect between an overemphasis on the supply by Iran and Syria of Hezbollah's weapons and no discussion of the fact that all of the Israeli arsenal is from the United States, and that that is in contravention to U.S. law. to the Arms Export Control Act, which says that U.S.-origin weapons are only to be used for self-defense and for internal security.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And your report indicates that Israel has always been the largest recipient of military aid from the United States, but that that’s actually increased since 2001?

FRIDA BERRIGAN: We’re looking at incredible increases in U.S. military aid and weapons sales to Israel. Military aid stands at about $3 billion a year. That’s about $500 for every Israeli citizen that the United States provides on an annual basis. And then, weapons sales, most recently, since the Bush administration came into power, we’re looking at $6.3 billion worth of weaponry sold to Israel.

Israel's relationship with the United States is unique in a number of ways. And one of those ways is that essentially the United States provides 20% of the Israeli military budget on an annual basis, and then about 70% of that money that is given from the United States, from U.S. taxpayers, to Israel is then spent on weapons from Lockheed Martin and Boeing and Raytheon. Most other countries don't have that sort of cash relationship, where they go straight to U.S. corporations with U.S. money to buy weapons that are then used in the Occupied Territories and against Lebanon. (emphasis added)

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Reprisals, Israel, Children and Mass Graves

It is now certain that Israel has bombed villages in the south of Lebanon in reprisal raids. They have admitted to it (video) and have "justified" these reprisals saying that villages may house Hezbollah rockets. Reprisal against defenseless civilians, particularly children, no matter what the underlying situation, is clearly a war crime. It is the basis of terrorism.

Remember, Israel signed the Geneva Conventions of 1949 with only a single reservation, that the Red Shield be substituted for the Red Cross:

Mr KAHANY, Delegate of Israel to the European Office of the United Nations and to the International Committee of the Red Cross, made the following declaration:

"In accordance with instructions received from my Government, I shall sign the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War without any reservation. But in the case of each of the other three Conventions, our signature will be given with reservations the purport of which is as follows:

(3) Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.
"Subject to the reservation that, while respecting the inviolability of the distinctive signs and emblems provided for in Article 38 of the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field of August 12, 1949, Israel will use the Red Shield of David as the emblem and distinctive sign provided for in this Convention." (the other two reservations were the same except referring to armed forces)(emphasis added)

Why do I think that Israel will never be brought to justice for these crimes? Why do I think that America will never have to answer for the billions of dollars (my tax dollars) that have gone to buy these very bombs? Why do I find these photos of Israeli children inscribing these bombs as repugnant as a Nazi propoganda poster in its exploitation of children (for an analysis, see BagNotes, July 20, 2006)?



In some sense, I find this as disquieting as:


Eric Blair (George Orwell) would be astonished.

And, in Tyre, it was necessary to bury 80 bodies in a mass grave because there is no refrigeration to prevent corruption. Are mass graves compatible with civilization?

Friday Crab Blogging and more

Other:


Zoe's Octopus

Selective Bombing

A toy is seen in Beirut suburbs, after it was targeted by Israeli air strikes in southern Beirut July 21, 2006. REUTERS/Sharif Karim (LEBANON)

Sometimes its too sad for words.

Meanwhile:

Remini held Suri Cruise during L.A. visit Thu Jul 20, 10:27 PM ET

NEW YORK - We have a Suri Sighting. Although Suri Cruise has not been seen in public since her April 18 birth, Leah Remini, a friend of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise, and a fellow Scientologist, says she has seen the infant.

Yes, this is on the same planet.

Some things never change

Grieving Soldiers

Why are these soldiers grieving? It is not because of this murdered child.

Why can't this man keep his hands to himself?

At some time one has to question his mental health.

August, 1914

And no one really knew what the war would be like. There had not been a general European war for ninety-nine years; there had not been any wars between European powers for almost half a century. Professional soldiers were well aware that weaponry had been revolutionized in that time, and that armies had vastly increased their firepower, but they weren’t sure what effect this would have on the battlefield or what tactics they should adopt. They would find out the hard way.

What White Powder?

Coulter Jokes to Reporter About Mailing White Powder to 'NY Times'

Massive Diplomacy

To the Editor:

The situation in the Middle East has become horrific. Why are we sitting quietly by? We should immediately use our influence as the most powerful nation on earth to stop the fighting. Every day numerous civilians, including children, die in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq and even Israel. Every one of these deaths is a tragedy. The killing of innocent children is incomprehensible and unacceptable.

Sixty-one years ago the United States spearheaded the formation of the United Nations. The purpose of this organization was exactly the task that faces us today, restoring peace between warring peoples. Sadly, as the years have passed, our support of the UN has dimmed. This has been accompanied by our dependence on massive firepower to solve international problems. Three years after the incursion into Iraq we are bogged down and the country is in civil war. This should teach us, once again, that massive firepower in such situations, including nuclear weapons, is almost useless

The only hope for a viable resolution in Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza is to reinvigorate the UN and deploy massive diplomacy. This should include negotiations with Syria and Iran. Many, many children’s lives are dependent on it.

But, I am not holding my breath.

Yes, Mr. Bush, I AM Offended

The Federal definition of sexual harassment is a little more stringent than others:

Sexual harassment can occur in a variety of circumstances, including but not limited to the following:

*The victim as well as the harasser may be a woman or a man. The victim does not have to be of the opposite sex.

*The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, an agent of the employer, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or a non-employee.

*The victim does not have to be the person harassed but could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct.

*Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the victim.

*The harasser's conduct must be unwelcome.

Maybe I should bring a suit. Maybe I could bring an impeachment. There is precedent.

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)

Who gets to define Moral?

This crude, unwholesome barbarian wouldn't know what was moral if his life depended on it.

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - US Ambassador John Bolton said there was no moral equivalence between the civilian casualties from the Israeli raids in Lebanon and those killed in Israel from "malicious terrorist acts" (emphasis added).

What is he, the Pope? Where does he get off telling me what is moral or not.

In my opinion, killing a child is immoral and never justified.