So let's say a group of terrorists set up shop in your neighborhood. And they were obvious about it, like bringing in rocket launchers, mortars and the like. Now let's say they set these up by the local elementary school. Then began firing these rockets off while school was in session and then quickly scooted away so that any retalitaory strike would endanger the children but not the terrorists.
Would you support the terrorists?
Here's a picture of Hezbollah doing just that.
Now it's quite true that just looking at that creepy bunch might strike fear in the hearts of ordinary citizens such that they would be unwilling to oppose these neighborhood bullies. And even when the leaflets dropped from the sky by Israeli's telling you to get out of town because the missiles are going to fly, these bullies might try to prevent you.
Because, you see, to them you are more valuable dead than alive.
You are more valueable as a media pawn to show how evil the Israeli's are than you are as an indivdual human.
Because with you lying dead in the street, or more precisely, your children lying dead in the street is more valuable to them than any living civilian. Why? Because of this
Rescuers aided by villagers dug through the rubble by hand. At least 20 bodies wrapped in white sheets were taken away, including 10 children. A row of houses lay in ruins, and an old woman was carried away on a plastic chair.
Villagers said many of the dead were from four families who had taken refuge in on the ground floor of a three-story building, believing they would be safe from bombings.
"We want this to stop!" shouted Mohammed Ismail, a middle-aged man pulling away at the rubble in search for bodies, his brown pants covered in dust. "May God have mercy on the children. They came here to escape the fighting."
"They are hitting children to bring the fighters to their knees," he said.
For while, at the beginning, people were blaming Hizballah for starting the rucus. The terrorists were caught off guard with everyone pointing their fingers at them. They had to do something to regain "victim status" because with the ever vigilant media on the job, that's how you really win wars; by being portrayed as the valient victim. And in turn portraying the enemy as a bully.
Bob Dylan sarcastically sung that song already
Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man,
His enemies say he's on their land.
They got him outnumbered about a million to one,
He got no place to escape to, no place to run.
He's the neighborhood bully.
The neighborhood bully just lives to survive,
He's criticized and condemned for being alive.
He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin,
He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in.
He's the neighborhood bully.Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized,
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad.
The bombs were meant for him.
He was supposed to feel bad.
He's the neighborhood bully.
Well, the chances are against it and the odds are slim
That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him,
'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac.
He's the neighborhood bully.
Now one would think that people, even the common Lebanese would be able to tell the bully from victim. But you would be mistaken
Responsibility for the Israeli airstrikes that killed at least 54 civilians sheltering in a home in the Lebanese village of Qana rests squarely with the Israeli military, Human Rights Watch said today. It is the latest product of an indiscriminate bombing campaign that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have waged in Lebanon over the past 18 days, leaving an estimated 750 people dead, the vast majority of them civilians. "Today's strike on Qana, killing at least 54 civilians, more than half of them children, suggests that the Israeli military is treating southern Lebanon as a free-fire zone," said Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch. "The Israeli military seems to consider anyone left in the area a combatant who is fair game for attack."
This latest, appalling loss of civilian life underscores the need for the U.N. Secretary-General to establish an International Commission of Inquiry to investigate serious violations of international humanitarian law in the context of the current conflict, Roth said. Such consistent failure to distinguish combatants and civilians is a war crime. A statement issued today by the IDF said that responsibility for the Qana attack "rests with the Hezbollah" because it has used the area to launch "hundreds of missiles" into Israel. It added: "Residents in this region and specifically the residents of Qana were warned several days in advance to leave the village."
..."Just because the Israeli military warned the civilians of Qana to leave does not give it carte blanche to blindly attack," Roth said. "It still must make every possible effort to target only genuine combatants. Through its arguments, the Israeli military is suggesting that Palestinian militant groups might 'warn' all settlers to leave Israeli settlements and then be justified in targeting those who remained."
But do they criticize Hezbollah for not warning civilians in Israel before they launch missiles into civilian areas with no (count 'em, zero) military value? Do they criticize Hezbollah for firing those millisles from civilian areas then scooting so the children take the hit?
All Hezbollah does is try to kill civilians. They attempt to kill soldiers only when they are forced to do so.
With regards to bothLebanese and Israeli civilians, Hezbollah has intentionally got them caught in the crossfire.
Well, he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace,
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease.
Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly.
To hurt one they would weep.
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep.
He's the neighborhood bully.
Neighborhood Bully Copyright © 1983 Special Rider Music
And in the "one picture is worth a thousand words" department comes this illustration from Blackfive
