Thursday, July 27, 2006
Why the UN Post was Bombed
While I haven't blogged about the UNIFIL post that was hit by Israel yet, I did enter this in my commment section yesterday regarding the incident that killed four UN peacekeepers:
And Kofi Annan, ever the consumate diplomat. How many more months did he buy at the trough by sucking up to terror's defenders, accusing Israel of intentionally killing UN peacekeepers? Any good deeds Kofi may have performed back in elementary school notwithstanding, he is slowly building up a remarkably despicable legacy. It's time to replace Kofi, I don't care who takes his place at this point. Ashton Kutcher could run the UN and it would at least be only inefficient.
Well, information is coming in now about how and why this happened. Andrew Bolt of Australia's Herald Sun is putting together the pieces, and the picture is so ugly this is one jig-saw puzzle you'll want to do upside down. Make sure you read the whole thing, and then watch CNN or BBC (if you have a strong stomach) or your local newspaper to see if there are any clarifying stories or headlines to fix the harm done in their haste to condemn Israel's fight against war criminals (who hide behind civilians and UN peacekeepers):
Correction: Apparently the UN Post in question wasn't specifically a UNIFIL post, but rather a UNTSO post. Who knew they could squeeze so many different variations of international human shields into the same little region? Well, other than Itamar Frenkel that is.
If you really, really liked this -- or even really, really hated it -- there's lots more:
Other than that, I haven't made a big post about this because I didn't have any information to do more than cynically speculate about Hizballah's involvement. But after the Gaza beach incident, after the Al-Durah video and subsequent global martyrdom, and after Anderson Cooper's revelation of Hizballah's Pallywood-worthy manipulative media methods (Cedarwood), it's hard to believe the world's journalists still can't restrain themselves for even a day or two before screaming "Butcher!" at much-loathed Israel in their headlines.
I agree, accidents happen, at least in the real world. Especially when Hizbullah has been documented to operate near and even collocate with UN bases. When in battle, return fire is called in against a missle location, I don't know if IDF gunmen have to verify every return coordinate against a table of all known locations of UN bases. Perhaps they figured peacekeepers would not be allowing missiles to be shot from next to their base and didn't check. Or mabye it was just simple coordinate error. Stuff happens. My sympathies to the families of the soldiers who were killed though.
And Kofi Annan, ever the consumate diplomat. How many more months did he buy at the trough by sucking up to terror's defenders, accusing Israel of intentionally killing UN peacekeepers? Any good deeds Kofi may have performed back in elementary school notwithstanding, he is slowly building up a remarkably despicable legacy. It's time to replace Kofi, I don't care who takes his place at this point. Ashton Kutcher could run the UN and it would at least be only inefficient.
Well, information is coming in now about how and why this happened. Andrew Bolt of Australia's Herald Sun is putting together the pieces, and the picture is so ugly this is one jig-saw puzzle you'll want to do upside down. Make sure you read the whole thing, and then watch CNN or BBC (if you have a strong stomach) or your local newspaper to see if there are any clarifying stories or headlines to fix the harm done in their haste to condemn Israel's fight against war criminals (who hide behind civilians and UN peacekeepers):
And there is more. (Hat tip to lgf).
What makes Annan’s allegation so unforgiveable is that his UN Interim Force in Lebanon has been warning for days about what almost certainly caused this tragedy. Hezbollah fighters, who have already been firing behind screens of women and children, have also been shooting from behind and next to the UN positions, presumably hoping Israel will not dare shoot back and risk exactly this kind of propaganda disaster.
Read the UNIFIL press releases for yourself to learn that Hezbollah has not just shot at and seriously wounded UNIFIL observers - without any protest from Kofi Annan or The Age. You’ll also learn that UNIFIL has repeatedly reported Israeli shelling and bombing near UNIFIL outposts because Hezbollah fighters were shooting from right beside them.
Says the UNIFIL press release of 20 July:
Hezbollah firing was also reported from the immediate vicinity of the UN positions in Naquora and Maroun Al Ras areas at the time of the incidents (of Israeli return fire).
Can the jeering critics of Israel stop catcalling for a minute and explain how Israel is to defend itself against an enemy that shoots from among women and children, and from behind UN soldiers? Can they explain why they are such apologists for terrorists? Can Annan explain why he did not call on Hezbollah to stop risking the lives of his staff, or pull them out when they were being used to screen terrorist fighters?
Correction: Apparently the UN Post in question wasn't specifically a UNIFIL post, but rather a UNTSO post. Who knew they could squeeze so many different variations of international human shields into the same little region? Well, other than Itamar Frenkel that is.
