Qana

[Chris Alger]

[ QUOTE ]
"Hezzbolla was using this position to attempt to kill and wound Isreali civilians. Those Lebonese civilians killed, occupied a position they knew was going to be bombed. In fact the Isrealis dropped leaflets telling those people to leave. I'd like to know why these people did not leave before I start assigning blame."

[/ QUOTE ]
Do a search on Lebanon-refugees-trapped and you'll get a pretty good idea why they might have been reluctant to leave: nowhere to go, no car, no gas, no safe roads, bridges blown up, little and possibly no food, money or medicine, aid stations in crisis, cabs charging $400 a ride, etc. Take into account that a number of Lebanese are too young, too old or too sick to endure something like this and contrast it to the inviting appearance of a concrete basement in a large building. Consider the possibility of even harder cases: this particular group of civilians included 15 mentally retarded children, according to a report in the Australian Herald Sun, all dead now.

A "rocket luanching position?" Where's the evidence of that? "To date, Israel has not presented any evidence to show that Hezbollah was present in or around the building that was struck at the time of the attack." Human Rights Watch, 7/30/06. That clip they keep running on Fox News comes from three days before the attack, and no one seems to be sure that it's even the same building.

What's more likely is that Israel's "military" campaign is similar to the one Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon described to the BBC: <ul type="square">He said that in order to prevent casualties among Israeli soldiers battling Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, villages should be flattened by the Israeli air force before ground troops moved in. He added that Israel had given the civilians of southern Lebanon ample time to quit the area and therefore anyone still remaining there could be considered a Hezbollah supporter. "All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah," Mr Ramon said.[/list]That's as good an explanation for Qana as you're likely to see: they had to get those disabled children terrorists while they slept.