Maybe Now (Some) Will Get It

Ralph Bennett, writing in TCS Daily wonders if maybe, just maybe, people will get it this time. The terrorists like Hezbollah hide behind women and children. They welcome the death of these innocents. It is all just information war for them. A way to play on the groupthink of the Western media. Propaganda writ large with the active assistance of the Western media. The willing assistance, in fact.

Maybe, as this terrible business in Lebanon unfolds, we'll finally get it:

Guerrillas like to hide behind civilians.

Muslim guerrillas take it a step further: "Civilians" are a weapon to them — as much a part of the fight as the AK-47 or RPG they carry.

Those who have visited any Hezbollah installation in Lebanon over the years always remark on the fact that there are families, women and children, in and around the place. "Secret" bases are usually hidden in plain site. Houses or apartment buildings become weapons storage or even operations centers.  An innocent shed or garage may contain a Toyota or a missile launcher.

Seldom, if ever, has a guerrilla movement been able to so openly and exquisitely weave itself into the fabric of a society as Hezbollah has done in Lebanon.

If the civilians in and around what are in effect operational bases happen to be of Hezbollah's own brand of Islam they automatically become a part of the "sacrificial," suicidal equation. Often without choice or foreknowledge, they die an "honorable" death in the battle against infidels or apostates.

If the civilians happen to be of some other persuasion, Islamic or otherwise, their deaths are not even worth a shrug. However, these mangled bodies and wailing women with arms outstretched do provide an immense propaganda payoff, especially in the Western "crusader" media — which still places a quaint value on human life.

They simply do not care. And the Western left will not hold them to the same standards as they insist Western troops must follow. War crimes committed by the terrorists are given a free pass while Israelis and Americans are held to extreme interpretations of the Geneva Conventions. Western human rights groups can be counted on to denounce the West while staying silent about the heinous crimes of the terrorists.

But when even the UN has to admit that Hezbollah is hiding among civilians and causing their deaths, maybe this time at least some people will see.

Maybe.