Call Me Cynical But...

how many people have heard of all the civilian casualties over in Lebanon and very little about Hezbollah's casualties? NPR yesterday had someone who asked "why does it seem that Hezbollah has very little in the way of lost fighters when the places being attacked are their strongholds?" Do they only have a few fighters in these "strongholds" or is the media reporting them to be civilians because they are hidden within the civilian population?

Just seems to me that perhaps maybe some of those "civilian" casualties are not all civilians and Israel is actually hitting the right targets in more then one case. (yes yes I know, Israel bombed the roads with people on them, they bombed the UN, but while they may have a good military, that does not mean they do not hit the wrong targets on occasion. Like we did when we hit the Chinese Embassy back in the 90s)

Hezbollah spent thousands of dollars over the years to construct bunkers for their members & the Israelis are killing hundreds of civilians while trying to penetrate said bunkers. As reported in multiple sources.

unless you think that's where hezbollah dug all their tunnels, then it makes perfect sense.

the group that Israel is fighting has members that are not obvious members of a military. Hezbollah are a guerilla force and can and do hide within the civilian population. So I think the casualties they are suffering ARE higher but they can claim it is not because who can tell who is who?

Water stations being bombed are part of a seige...like when a castle was cut off from having food so the leaders inside would eventually surrender because too many of their people were starving to death.

I pointed this out the other day and got flamed. It is in Hezbollah's best interest to make it look like the deaths are mostly civilian and few, if any, Hezbollah members. I am cynical too about the accuracy of innocents vs. Hezbollah deaths being reported.

claiming 25 dead. I was think...2 weeks of bombing, by the best military in the region outside of us, and ONLY 25 dead?

SOMEONE is lying.

Is Hezbollah in or out of uniform? If not any casualties would certainly look civilian ( I think we can figure out the kids are proably just innocent bystanders) and do they even have an accurate account of their units in the field? Do some of them pop up fight a bit then melt away (along with a few members melting away from the unit). A problem with fighting a force that may operate with some less thatn formal organization.

They could just have a bandana or something simple for their guys to see but not necessarily known to aid workers.

I mean it makes sense if you are a weak force to use whatever tactics you can to obtain an advantage and that is what this group does. At least until the pressure on Israel to stop fighting gets to the point that they do, then Hezbollah can just reform.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/20/nasrallah.interview/

Snip-->
"Asked if he was downplaying Hezbollah losses, Nasrallah flatly denied it.
"We don't hide our martyrs. Throughout history, we have not done so," he said.
"You know Lebanon. There are no secrets in Lebanon."

After Israel announced that it had struck the bunker, Hezbollah said on its
Al-Manar television station that Israel had hit an under-construction mosque,
but caused no casualties." <--snip

They wouldn't admit it anyway, imho, because it would be a sign of weakness.
Don't forget all that testosterone in action there! :sarcasm:

:evilfrown:

you claim nothing is wrong.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1764678&mesg_id=1764678

Read the above dorktv. Very interesting interview, imo. ;)

get the babies out!

because of the enormous benefit of making Israel look bad, inflating the numbers of innocents killed. Downplaying the number of Hezbollah members being killed is propaganda at its finest, and sadly, it seems to be working on some people.

Khalifeh is the guy in charge of the Health Ministry. He's the one responsible for releasing the numbers, and he's been cited as announcing the death toll.

He's not Hezbollah. He's Shi'ite, and was in his post before Syria left. He's with a party that's very friendly and sympathetic to Hezbollah. So friendly, in fact, that he and other Shi'ite cabinet members walked out and threatened to bring down the government because of what Siniora said.

Siniora said that Hezbollah was a militia, and needed to be disarmed.

When Siniora recanted, and the text of his repentance speech was approved--that Hezbollah was the resistance, and that he and all Lebanon were proud of Hezbollah--the Shi'ites returned.

In other words, the person we're relying on to present us the accurate ratio of civilian:militant casualties, in fact the actual numbers, as reported by morgues and hospitals, was willing to threaten and act to bring down the Lebanese government in defense of Hezbollah's being insulted, and threatened with disarmament.