Keith,

The “Pacific Solution” was unconstitutional as any person accused or charged with offending Commonwealth law must be cared for by a State (Section 120 of the Constitution).
The Minister has no constitutional powers to declare any person to be illegal as that is a function for the Courts. Neither has the Minister any constitutional any constitutional powers to order the deportation of a person, as again that is we have a judiciary. Because people support this kind of unconstitutional conduct the Federal Government gets away with it. Then one day it will be the turn of those who supported unconstitutional conduct that they themselves will be on the receiving end of unconstitutional conduct and then others will likewise ignore it.

Why have a judiciary is some office worker, merely decides (in the name of the minister) to order the deportation of a person, such as the very ill Vivian Alvarez Solon? We have a judiciary who is to determine the innocence or guilt of a person, and we do not have a democracy if that is not provided for.

Dannielle

Of course your snide anti semitic slur is your only recourse.

It simply shows the inherent weakness of your positions and an inability on your part to change from your blinkered and pigheaded prejudices.

It is foolishness and I wont continue a discussion with a fool.

Danielle,

Two points I would like you to clarify:

“No country should employ cluster bombs, yet they are legal under international law”
“Unless Israel annexes Palestine it does not own this area”

Unless I misunderstood, your position seems to be ‘immoral or unhuman is OK as long as it is legal’. Have you actually seen the victims of cluster bombs specially young children? I would advise you to Google it. You can be an Israeli supporter all you want but you have to recognise when those who you cheer for cross the line of human decency.

As for the other comment: The Hezbollah use human shields.

Hezbollah is defined as a guerilla warriors with no regular army (like the IRA, Basque separatists, etc..)
To fight such a formation it requires to engage in ground combat.
Conscious of Israeli military casualty, the IDF took the easier option of aerial bombing. I didn’t not see the Spanish army bombing the houses of the Basque separatists or British army bombing south of Ireland.
It was an IDF ‘informed decision’ to avoid face to face combat and resorted to blanket punishment instead.

Correct me if I misunderstood your position.

Peace,

Fellow_Human,

I do not approve of cluster bombs under ANY circumstances. I thought that I made this clear.

Unfortunately, they are legal under international law. Until these laws are changed, countries will use them.

I lived for 7 years in Malaysia during the communist emergency. Friends were killed in horrific circumstances. One friend, a doctor, head of a leprocy team, was ambushed, pumped with bullets and set afire. I have seen cars overturned and doused with petrol and set afire, their occupants still inside. I have witnessed buses packed with people, including children ambushed and machine-gunned.

I knew that we Europeans were the enemy. At the age of 14, I knew how to handle arms including handgrenades. I had to.

However, at the age of 15 I knelt amongst the dead and dying of a cinema packed with families - all locals - (no Europeans), into which terrorists had lobbed hand-grenades,
Many were in such agony they could not utter a sound; many sounds were not human. I held a toddler’s hand, her mother, I presume, was dead beside her. I doubt this toddler was aware I was there - she was silent, her face a mask in agony. The stench of the distinctive smell of blood and opened body cavities and fluids, vomit, detritus and nitrate was overpowering. The few medicos available imposed triage. This tiny tot was passed by - others also passed, were aware that their condition was hopeless and would die. One can’t begin to describe their expressions ...and I don’t even want to go there. The already dead were fortunate. The human body is so very vulnerable - it doesn’t take much to dismember, impale or “shred” it.

Later I stood under a shower fully dressed so that I could peel off my jeans and top, thickly stuck and dried to my body with blood and detritus. Blood and body fluids had seeped into my sandles. Everything was burnt.

cont ...

From that moment on I hated terrorists with a passion; not so much for what they do to their perceived enemy, but what they do to their own.

I really understood what terrorism meant. They were not freedom fighters. They use the carrot and the stick to instil fear and compliance into their own people, and found the stick much more effective.

In combatting terrorism, many villages and kampongs were surrounded by high razor wire. The Brits threw everything they had at the terrorists - including bombing of what they thought were terrorist strongholds.

Fellow_Human,

I truly know what terrorism is. The Hezbollah are terrorists.

The leader of Lebanon stated at the beginning of the Hezbollah/Israeli confict, that it would be suicide to try and disarm them.

The Hezbollah had no right in Lebanon; and they did use human shields, including UN posts.

Fellow_Human,

I agree with you that the IDF should have engaged in face to face combat - and many Israeli’s themselves would agree. There is no question that such combat would have been preferable to bombing them.

I wonder though, how many civilians the Hezbollah would have let survive under these conditions. I suspect that they would have still used them as shields, and indeed, taken as many civilians as they would have taken Israelis. If the Hezbollah
had thought they were losing, civilians would have been the first to be killed, even if only to use the corpses to hinder the oncoming Israelis.

Do you think that the Hezbollah would have granted as cease-fire in which civilians could leave the combat zone. I don’t.

Like all terrorists, the Hezbollah are opportunists and would use whatever means and whatever they had to hand.

I am not a strategist, but I know terrorists, and of what they are capable. The Hezbollah would be no different.

Incidentally, this is in no way a justification of using bombs, but an assessment, born of experience, of an alternate outcome.

Peace as always

Hi Danielle,

Thank you for clarifying your position.
It must have been awful to go through the personal experiences above.

Although I think you agreed with my comment re the IDF: The decision to avoid groud combat directly contributed to larger civilian casualties in Lebanon. Also, the IDF 'weapons of choice' was interesting. Heavy artillery (150mm) and air to surface missiles in largely populated areas is a recipe for disaster.
Its like dropping a car in a swimming pool and saying "it won't splash"

Peace as always..