Surprises? What Surprises, Pray Tell!
Families, not fighters, live in suburb: HezbollahSuch is the heading of the news item. And then we read: Israel alleges razed area was military centre. Whom to believe? The world is invited by Hezbollah to regard the truth as they see it: Israel has yet again and with deliberation, bombed a civilian area with the intent to kill Lebanese citizens.
The evidence is there, they say, you be the judge. And to that end, appearing anxious to give the international media a tour of the battered, deserted area, called Rue 70 in Bereit's southern suburbs Hezbollah spokesman Hussain Habulsi shouts to the assembled news media: "Do you see rocket launchers, or an armoury of guns? There is no barracks here, just homes".
And then Mr. Nabulsi points out where Sheikh Syyed Nasrallah, Hezbollah's secretary general's offices once stood. The entire point of the exercise was to knock out that very building on the understanding that Nasrallah and some of his henchmen were there assembled at that time, according to informants. What cannot be overlooked is that the office of this man who heads Hezbollah and directs its exercises in terror is located in the southern suburb of Beirut, directly in a civilian enclave.
When this is pointed out, Mr. Nabulsi rejects the observation that civilians are being used as human shields. The office (the war room of Hezbollah, directing its activities) is located directly within a vast residential area, home to a half million people. Sheer coincidence, happenstance, and perhaps unfortunate also, for the people who live there.
A man who had been evacuated with his family as a result of Israel's warnings pre-bombing for the residents to flee had returned to view what was left of his family's home: demolished. Hamid, the only name he would divulge, explained to reporters that he and his neighbours regard themselves as Hezbollah's "territorial army". The residents, whether medical professionals, mechanics, teachers, have all spent time in southern Lebanon for military training with Hezbollah.
"We are all Hezbollah here and none of us are. We believe we all have a duty to defend our community as Israel wants to wipe us off the map."Mr. Nabulsi boasted of the military prowess of his group, claiming that Hezbollah is only growing stronger, not weaker, in the face of the Israeli onslaught. "If Israel dares to confront us face to face then let them do it on the border and not come with their jet fighters high in the skies to strike civilians."
The question here being why would Hezbollah feel it right and proper that they are not constrained by any ethical considerations with respect to civilian casualties when they lob their arsenal of rockets and armed missiles into civilian enclaves across the Lebanese border, and why it is perfectly normal for Hezbollah to locate the centre of their military operations within a civilian population.
What kind of warped logic is this? Oh well, it's the logic of an illogical, irrational, murderous group of jihadists. Freedom fighters. Protectors of their people.
Israel warns civilian populations pre-bombing to clear away from the area to avoid bloodshed, if at all possible. Hezbollah exults in its occasional hits, celebrating blood it spills as that of the enemy, military or civilian it makes no matter.
And - wait for it - Shheik Nasrallah promises "there are still more surprises that we will keep to ourselves". We wait now for Allah to lift the jihadist militia up to the heavens in a collective levitation.
Praise be to God. Keep them there.
posted by Pieface @ Friday, July 21, 2006
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