The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > The murky world of war > Comments

The murky world of war : Comments

By Greg Barns, published 15/8/2006

Howard and Ruddock ought to warn Australians serving in the Israeli defence forces as well as those who support Hezbollah.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. ...
  8. 19
  9. 20
  10. 21
  11. All
Empty words:

Israel has not acted without regard for the conventions of war.
Israel has never targeted civilians, but Hezbullah did just that.
There have been some accidents where civilians who were told to leave but either refused or were not allowed by the enemy to stay away from terrorist installations, and of whose presence in particular locations Israel was unaware, were sadly killed.
As in any war, Israel had to destroy infrastructure to prevent enemy reinforcements.

Hence this article serves no genuine purpose other than being a part of a smear campaign under the assumption that if lies are repeated long enough they will somehow become true.
Posted by Yuyutsu, Tuesday, 15 August 2006 12:34:08 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
I think that it needs to be remembered that Israel has the 4th largest army in the world (there must be a reason why this is the case), they use overwhelming force to attack their enemies (not just subdue them) and have been accused numerous times of commiting acts of violence against citizens. This is not a smear campaign. I do not agree with what is going on over there but Israel fits the definition of bully so neatly that it is really hard to believe that they are always the victim. Just look at the fundamental information in an objective way. Hezbollah are stupid for taking them on openly but you cannot say with conviction that Israel are not taking advantage of the situation and really laying the boot into Lebanon.
Posted by Daniel M, Tuesday, 15 August 2006 12:42:52 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Good point - why is it everybody says, "not our problem" when it comes to strife in areas like sudan, but are keen to take up arms when it's Israel or the middle east? oil of course contributes to the latter, but as for the former, I can only ascribe it to a strong jewish lobby worldwide.

Take note here - I am not siding with hezbollah, simply saying that if we're going to use the 'not our problem' approach in certain circumstances, this is an excellent one.
Posted by TurnRightThenLeft, Tuesday, 15 August 2006 1:46:27 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Chris Shaw,

Thanks for the excellent link. I found Seymour Hersch's account of his meeting with the Syrian President particuarly interesting. I also found it interesting how Rummy supposedly is going the way of Robert McNamara. The whole administration needs to take a few lessons from McNamara, whose number one rule for diplomacy was to empathise with your enemy.

But they won't, and neither will the close mided bigots on this forum that are completley incapable of seeing both sides, or imagining a better way.
Posted by Carl, Tuesday, 15 August 2006 1:50:51 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
No, Greg, this is not a fair point at all.

It is not illegal under Australian law for an Australian to fight for the armed services of another nation. It won't revoke your Australian citizenship, unless those forces engage Australian forces.
It is illegal under Australian law to join Hezbollah or any other proscribed terrorist organization.

So, as someone above pointed out, it would be better to describe this situation as the similarity between an Aussie/Lebanese person fighting for the Lebanese army and an Aussie/Israeli fighting for the Israeli army. Howard did not warn Aussie/Lebanese people against joining the Lebanese army, which is legal, but from joining the terrorist Hezbollah, which is illegal.

Seems like a perfectly fair warning to me.
Posted by Alpal, Tuesday, 15 August 2006 1:54:14 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Daniel M,

Yes, there is a reason for Israel's large army, actually quite a bizzare one: they want to live - funny, isn't it?

Israel is surrounded by hostile countries who wished to kill its people even before its inception, mostly still want the same, and unprovoked launched several conventional wars against it as well as numerous terrorist attacks. Why do those Jewish clowns refuse to die?

Propaganda being part of the ongoing war, no wonder that Israel is accused of any crime under the sun by a chorus of some billion Moslems.

Israel is now eagerly awaiting the Lebanese army and the international force to take over the land which it never wanted, but I can say with confidence that Israel does indeed take advantage of the situation - after all, isn't it monstrous that they are still alive?
Posted by Yuyutsu, Tuesday, 15 August 2006 2:21:49 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. ...
  8. 19
  9. 20
  10. 21
  11. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy