h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Whoever hits the yikes button in my journal is asked to please unsubscribe. The proper way to behave in people's journals is to highlight a problem, not act behind the host's back.

The author, Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.

http://www.counterpunch.com/Roberts07222006.html

God help us.


http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1D608570-C11E-4AEB-B14B-84B47DC401E7.htm

"The shells and rockets ripping apart Muslim bodies in Gaza and Lebanon are not only Israeli, but are supplied by all the countries of the crusader coalition. Therefore, every participant in the crime will pay the price," al-Zawahiri said.

He also suggested that the world cared more about Israelis than Palestinians.

"The 10,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel's prisons do not move anything while three Israeli prisoners have shaken the world," he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5219360.stm

"We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world... to continue the operation," Justice Minister Haim Ramon said.

His comments came ahead of an Israeli cabinet meeting to decide whether to intensify the military offensive.

.../

Speaking on Israeli army radio, Mr Ramon - a close confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - said "everyone understands that a victory for Hezbollah is a victory for world terror".

He said that in order to prevent casualties among Israeli soldiers battling Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, villages should be flattened by the Israeli air force before ground troops move in.

'All southerners terrorists'

He added that Israel had given the civilians of southern Lebanon ample time to quit the area and therefore anyone still remaining there can be considered Hezbollah supporters.

LEBANON TWO WEEKS ON

Three airports bombed
62 bridges destroyed
Three dams and ports hit
5,000 homes damaged


"All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah," Mr Ramon said.

Mr Ramon's call for the use of greater firepower came as the Israeli cabinet was set to decide whether to broaden its military offensive
*********************

My question ( a futile one, I know) is this: How can we say we have international laws and standards in warfare and allow this to happen? Collective punishment and disregard for civilian life are not permitted. Those staying behind are not necessarily supporters. Every village has left one person behind so that what happened to fleeing Palestinians in 1948 and 1967 does not happen to Lebanese in the south - the annexation of their land.

Oh, and I forgot to say that the south also has Christian and Sunni villages in it... and they have done the same, left behind one person to safeguard the land (how, I am not sure )

What where who? What got yikesed?

I doubt it was someone from your journal Ma Wilma. Maybe someone ?

Maybe... it has been reinstated now. I find it very underhand to yikes journal posts anonymously like that, especially when it is a silly reason like that... Turns out it was over the guy's email addy (which is on the page with his article ) The ptb agreed to remove the addy and put the post back. Ah well, sorted now

ok. Well atleast its back now!

I'm off to pretend to be a good mamma

Have fun then!

Hey Wilma, thanks for trying. I wasn't able to access anything from the link. Sorry you had that hassle of someone yikesing your post. I think when someone does that in someone's journal it's pretty cowardly to stay anonyomous.

I think maybe it's automatic, in the Rules For Being A Moderator; you have to suspend a post that contains personal contact information (uness it's the poster's own info). Auntie Beeb doesn't want to be sued for harassment.

... except the info was part of his bio on the actual article on the actual website I got it from - and Lil, it is the profanity filter that is automated, not the moderating mechanism. Someone pressed the button and submitted my post as unsuitable. Would have been nice if they had given me the opportunity to do it myself, esp. since I am known for yikesing my own posts when I realise they are wrong for whatever reason Anyway, it's all over now, the post is back.

W

Hi Fanny, I checked too, they moved the page very odd.

Source: http://www.tayyar.org/tayyar/articles.php?article_id=16013&type=news







The Technology of War




July 28, 2006
Dan Ephron - Newsweek




In their current conflict, both Israel and Hizbullah have employed a surprising array of weapons. Israel has fought Lebanese guerrillas of one stripe or another for decades, but the latest war has allowed both sides to showcase weapons not usually seen on this battlefield.


A rundown:

CLUSTER MUNITIONS

Human Rights Watch photographed piles of cluster artillery shells on the border with Lebanon this week after NEWSWEEK reported that an Israeli reservist said artillery units had begun using the controversial armaments to destroy Hizbullah rocket launchers.

(Human Rights Watch field workers crawled through a meadow and used long-range lenses to photograph an artillery position in northern Israel from where the munitions were being fired. Israel won’t comment on the weapons it is using in Lebanon.)

Cluster shells are large munitions that explode in the air, scattering hundreds of small bomblets across a wide radius.

Military analysts say Israel has added the weapon to its arsenal because militants who launch rockets at the Jewish state are constantly moving, making them hard to target with a pinpoint strike.

“Clusters munitions happen to be fairly good at getting people who use rocket launchers,” says David Isby, a Washington-based defense and foreign-policy consultant.

“They cover a large area, and it’s hard to hide from them.”

But because of their wide dispersal, cluster munitions tend to cause more civilian casualties than other armaments. And they have a high dud rate, which means civilians might set off the unexploded bomblets months or years after the end of fighting. Israel, under pressure from the United States, had not used cluster munitions in Lebanon since 1982. But the United States itself has made wide use of clusters in Kosovo and Iraq, setting back efforts to impose an international ban. “We came to the conclusion that the use of cluster munitions caused more civilian casualties than any other weapons system in Iraq during the three weeks of major fighting,” says Steve Goose, who directs the arms division of Human Rights Watch.

GUIDED MISSILES

For military analysts, the biggest surprise of the war has been Hizbullah’s July 15 missile strike on an Israeli warship off Lebanon’s coast that killed four sailors. Israeli officials said the attack marked the first time Hizbullah had used a guided missile, and they speculated that the Lebanese Army had provided the group with radar data on the location of the warship. So unanticipated was the attack that the Israeli ship had not activated its missile-defense system.

The weapon was identified as a C-802, a missile made in China and imported by Iran during the 1990s. The missile carries its own internal-guidance system, which kicks in during the last stage of flight and helps the missile hone in on its target. Steve Zaloga, a defense analyst with the Virginia-based Teal Group, said he was surprised the missile did not destroy the entire ship. “It has a large warhead, and it also has fuel that gets sprayed on the engine of the ship and can cause a very large fire,” he said. “It may be that the missile failed.” Zaloga said firing the C-802 is a complicated task that requires extensive training. “It’s not something you just give to the boy scouts. It takes several months of training and an awful lot of prep work.”

OTHER MUNITIONS

Lebanon has accused Israel of firing white-phosphorous artillery shells at towns in the south. Phosphorous shells are usually used for illuminating the battlefield. When shot directly at a target, they can cause deadly fires. Israel has not responded to the allegation, and rights group say they cannot determine yet if the shells are being used. The United States was heavily criticized for using white phosphorous in its Fallujah battle of November 2004. “There was a big scandal with the use of phosphorous shells against civilians,” says Goose of Human Rights Watch. “If you’re using it against a human target, you’re going to incinerate the person.”

Israel says Hizbullah has at least one unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can be packed with explosives and crashed on a military or civilian site. Analysts say a UAV could find targets much more accurately than the rockets Hizbullah has been firing and could reach deeper into Israeli territory. The weapon, if it exists, so far remains unused.

Source http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14045328/site/newsweek/





Web-Exclusive Commentary

By Christopher Dickey

Newsweek

Updated: 3:57 p.m. ET July 26, 2006

July 26, 2006 - Worthy-sounding meetings of ministers, like the International Conference for Lebanon held in Rome today, rarely get very much done. The participants here were high-powered, to be sure: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the prime minister of the country in question, Fouad Siniora, plus a slew of Europeans and Arabs (but no Israelis or Hizbullahis). Instigated by Washington, it was all for show.

The assembled dignitaries expressed their “determination to work immediately to reach with the utmost urgency a ceasefire” in the war that started two weeks ago today when the Hizbullah militia crossed the border to capture two Israeli soldiers, and Israel responded with a massive counterattack the length and breadth of Lebanon. But, at American insistence, the ceasefire would have to be one that’s “lasting, permanent and sustainable.” Which means the flames searing Lebanon, threatening Israel and endangering the most volatile region in the world will go on for weeks, if not months, to come. The consolation prize: a promise of “immediate humanitarian aid.”

Imagine, if you will, that arsonists have set your apartment block on fire. You call 911 and plead for help. The dispatcher tells you of her “determination to work immediately with the utmost urgency” to douse the flames, but only if plans can be agreed on for the new building to be erected when the decrepit old one has gone up in smoke. She’s stalling, hoping the arsonists will be eliminated by the conflagration. And she’s got a great vision for the way that block should look some day. That’s what counts. Not your furniture, or for that matter, your family inside … No wonder Siniora looked distraught as the conference closed.

But as irrational as the politicians who make policy may be, the professionals in their entourages often understand reality quite well. And in the corridors of today’s conference I met several men and women who, on background or off the record (meaning they were afraid of losing their jobs if caught talking too frankly) laid out a picture of the situation in the Middle East right now that was convincing, frightening, and seems to have escaped the notice of Dispatcher Rice altogether.

The bottom line: Hizbullah is winning. That’s the hideous truth about the direction this war is taking, not in spite of the way the Israelis have waged their counterattack, but precisely because of it. As my source Mr. Frankly put it, “Hizbullah is eating their lunch.” We’re talking about a militia—a small guerrilla army of a few thousand fighters, in fact—that plays all the dirty games that guerrillas always play. It blends in with the local population. It draws fire against innocents. But it’s also fighting like hell against an Israeli military machine that is supposed to be world class. And despite the onslaught of the much-vaunted Tsahal, Hizbullah continues to pepper Israel itself with hundreds of rockets a day.



The United States, following Israel’s lead, does not want an immediate ceasefire precisely because that would hand Hizbullah a classic guerrilla-style victory: it started this fight against a much greater military force—and it’s still standing. In the context of a region where vast Arab armies have been defeated in days, for a militia to hold out one week, two weeks and more, is seen as heroic. Hizbullah is the aggressor, the underdog and the noble survivor, all at once. “It’s that deadly combination of the expectation game, which Hizbullah have won, and the victim game, which they’ve also won,” as my straight-talking friend put it.

Neither U.S. nor Israeli policymakers have taken this dynamic into account. If they had, they’d understand that with each passing day, no matter how many casualties it takes, Hizbullah’s political power grows. Several of my worldly Lebanese and Arab friends here in Rome today—people who loathe Hizbullah—understand this problem well. Privately they say that’s one of the main reasons they are so horrified at the direction this war has taken: they fear not only that Lebanon will be destroyed, but that Hizbullah will wind up planting its banner atop the mountain of rubble.

http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&AED900ED11F30304C22571B700561D4A
Iranian Volunteers Set off to Join 'Holy War' Against Israel in Lebanon
Surrounded by yellow Hizbullah flags, more than 60 Iranian volunteers set off Wednesday to join what they called a holy war against Israeli forces in Lebanon.
The group -- ranging from teenagers to grandfathers -- plans to join about 200 other volunteers on the way to the Turkish border, which they hope to cross Thursday. They plan to reach Lebanon via Syria on the weekend.

Organizers said the volunteers are carrying no weapons, and it was not clear whether Turkey would allow them to pass.

Besides the yikes button, I think there's a moderator who does troll the threads manually. Not sure how it works, but from the way the italics mention it, it sounds like they do more than respond to yikeses.


Things heating up in the frying pan, eh?

d'you mean trawl? A trolling moderator is too much to imagine!


several unsavoury metaphors come to mind but we'll have to watch out for that tro.. err, moderator

I took my kids to a peace vigil today. We went after the 'Stop the War' demo left the scene near Downing Street. We were all dressed in white, carrying Lebanese flags, flowers and candles only with simple humanitarian slogans. We were joined by some cycling group who carried their bikes above their heads silently for us on Whitehall Dunno who they were... My son initially did not want to go. He ended up helping the organisers as the lil gave out candles. I am glad I took them.



for Leo

Freudian slip? Not sure what I meant, actually.

Checked my expenses for the past month and discovered I've managed to spend $200. So I charged $100 to feed and shelter the hungry and homeless in Northern Israel.



Wish those 'third parties' would get their act together. This is getting worse and worse.

for Wilma and company.

There was an article in the WSJ about continued communication between Israeli and Lebenese bloggers - the only communication between two countries that don't even run phone lines across the border.