Human Shields?

I've been loathe to do a "war watch", partly because I think Israel is going overboard and being big jerks, and no one on this side of the pond really wants to hear that. I would say I have some complicated views on this one-- and really, what other kind could one have about such a complicated tangle of international politics? I think for now, as unlikely as it may seem, I should keep my general opinions to myself. No doubt you'll guess them as we go.

Of course the other reason to avoid a "war watch": I could comment on each day's tactics and events, but really, these things are typically only understood in hindsight rather than in "the fog of war" and things that seem worth writing about one day are wholly irrelevant the next day -- and since I often don't get my blog post finished in one sitting, that means I'd be chasing my tail.

But I think that if there is a salient point to be made that seems to apply to more than one day, or one phase of war, then I shall make it. "You can't stop the voice of the radio," my college radio promo used to say, and in this case, there is bound to be something that I feel compelled to talk about, and you can't stop me, so there!

In this case, I was reading an article on Salon.com called "The hiding among civilians myth". Israel is bombing the f&%* out of southern Lebanon and has killed hundreds of civilians, even 4 UN observers and the tragedy in Qana-- but this isn't reckless, they say, it's because Hezbollah has buried themselves in the civilian population and are using it as a "human shield". (Not reckless, right, but somehow it's OK to fire at the human shield and worry about placing the blame afterwards... hmm...)

As usual, the reporters you see on CNN consider it "news" if they "report" on press statements issued by Someone Important-- so when they "report" on this, the sentence usually goes like this: "Lebanon is taking heavy civilian casualties, however Israel says that it's because Hezbollah is hiding in the civilian population." No mention if this is, say, true. Equally effective reporting might be, "Lebanon is taking heavy civilian casualties, however Israel says that TomKat's baby is 'funny-looking.'" The reporters are there, is it so hard to report on what you're actually seeing rather than just reporting on official statements? Well, Mitch Prothero has done this in this article.

His main statement is this: "My own reporting and that of other journalists reveals that in fact Hezbollah fighters -- as opposed to the much more numerous Hezbollah political members, and the vastly more numerous Hezbollah sympathizers -- avoid civilians."

Among many real-world examples of this, rich in detail, he makes the following main points:

--"[Hezbollah] has a clear policy of keeping its fighters away from civilians as much as possible. This is not for humanitarian reasons -- they did, after all, take over an apartment building against the protests of the landlord, knowing full well it would be bombed -- but for military ones."

--"Much smarter and better trained than the PLO and Hamas fighters, they know that if they mingle with civilians, they will sooner or later be betrayed by collaborators -- as so many Palestinian militants have been."

--"...one of the political operatives explains that the fighters never come near the town, reinforcing what other Hezbollah people have told me over the years."

--"...a Lebanese military intelligence official, now retired, once told me, "They do not come out with their masks off and never operate around people if they can avoid it. They're completely afraid of collaborators. They know this is what breaks the Palestinians -- no discipline and too much showing off."

--"The Hezbollah guys, on the other hand, know that letting their fighters near outsiders of any kind -- journalists or Lebanese, even Hezbollah supporters -- is stupid... No fighters on corners, no invitations to watch them shoot rockets at the Zionist enemy, nothing that can be used to track them."

--"Every other journalist I know who has covered Hezbollah has had the same experience. A fellow journalist, a Lebanese who has covered them for two decades, knows only one military guy who will admit it, and he never talks or grants interviews."

--"Hezbollah's political members say they have little or no access to the workings of the fighters. This seems to be largely true: While they obviously hear and know more than the outside world, the firewall is strong."

--"Israel, however, has chosen to treat the political members of Hezbollah as if they were fighters. And by targeting the civilian wing of the group, which supplies much of the humanitarian aid and social protection for the poorest people in the south, they are targeting civilians."

--"Lighthouses, grain elevators, milk factories, bridges in the north used by refugees, apartment buildings partially occupied by members of Hezbollah's political wing -- all have been reduced to rubble."

He wraps up by saying,

So the analysts talking on cable news about Hezbollah "hiding within the civilian population" clearly have spent little time if any in the south Lebanon war zone and don't know what they're talking about. Hezbollah doesn't trust the civilian population and has worked very hard to evacuate as much of it as possible from the battlefield. And this is why they fight so well -- with no one to spy on them, they have lots of chances to take the Israel Defense Forces by surprise, as they have by continuing to fire rockets and punish every Israeli ground incursion.

I haven't heard any of this on the MSM. As I said, it's enough for them if they can just quote someone's statement. The last time I saw this was the run-up to the Iraq war-- the WH would say, "There are WMDs," for example, but the MSM would never investigate, but rather would wait until Someone released an opposing statement ("...but Senator Kerry says..."). If no one did, and of course at that time many were afraid to, then the MSM had nothing in opposition to report. There was never any assessment as to what the facts actually were. We're getting the same action here. As I said earlier, all they will say is that the civilian deaths in Lebanon are 10 times those in Israel, "But Israel says..."

Last night AC360 promised to look into this, but I had to go to bed before it came on. I TiVo'd it, and I hope to have an update when I get to watch it, to report whether Anderson Cooper got any closer to the truth of this story. I also emailed Jack Cafferty and Lou Dobbs, two muckrakers if I ever saw one, asking that they look into this or at the very least, ask this poll/email question:

Who has the lower moral ground here, the Hezbollah who (if it's true) are using the Lebanese as human shields, or the Israelis who say, "Yeah, we don't care," and bomb the crap out of them anyway?

In another Salon article by Julie Flint called "The fallout from Qana", she quotes Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon as saying, "Everyone who is still in south Lebanon is linked to Hezbollah," Ramon said, suggesting that "maximum firepower has to be used."

It reminds me of an Onion article from just after 9/11: "God angrily clarifies 'Don't Kill' rule".

Stay tuned and let's see if the second attempt to calm the fight and get the civilians out works this time.