----- Original Message ----- From: "Jerome Conway" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 10:29 AM Subject: Eyeless in Gaza
"Hamas appears to be using civilians essentially as hostages": I essentially don't see anything wrong with using civilians as hostages (or shields) if Hamas believe it is effective in their objectives, because in all modern wars, there is no real distinction between soldiers and civilians regardless of one's belief of civilians should be protected from enemy attacks. Case in point, Germans bombed London. In retaliation, the Allied flattened Dresden and other German cities. US bombed the city of Tokyo on March 10, 1944 using 329 B-29 bombers and dropping essentially clustered Napalm bombs (incendiary bombs specifically targeting Japanese houses made of wood and paper). According to the record of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, because of this single strike (there were numerous other air raids) 83,703 civilians died. Bombs were dropped along the perimeter of the city first and then bombed inside so that there were no escapes. It is documented that the US Air Force crewmen received an explicit order to bomb indiscriminately. To say "civilians should not be killed" is a farce. I am not sure if Hamas really believe in such a tactics of using civilians schields, although pictures of wounded civilians are effective as a propaganda tool. Minoru Mochizuki --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Persons posting messages to not_honyaku assume all responsibility for their messages. The list owner does not review messages prior to posting, and accepts no responsibility for the content of messages posted. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
