Minoru wrote: > > > "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.
Not true. Civilian casualties accounted for only 10% of all casualties in World War I, and that was definitely a modern war. Such casualties were more than 50% of all casualties in WWII, and the numbers since then have been consistently high, despite the various attempts to prevent the targeting of civilian populations in international law, like the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. One reason for this is the use of air power against urban areas, but another is that given by Michael Mann in his book about ethnic cleansing, "The Dark Side of Democracy", namely that as the 20th century progressed there were fewer and fewer inter-state wars, and more ethnic and religious conflicts in which entire peoples or groups were demonized and attacked, without any distinction between combatants and non-combatants. And in any case, Hamas is not using Gazans as "human shields"; that is just Israeli state propaganda, and Jerry''s citation addresses the issue effectively. John M. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
