From: L' Ermit (lhermit@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun Feb 24 2002 - 22:27:02 MST
[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1822000/1822307.stm]Tank
tactic shocks Israel[/url]
[url=http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2002/574/re2.htm]Steeled by
despair[/url] [b]Strong Read Recommendation - Hermit[/b]
Notice the results of "careful targeting" in this article (ignore the tone -
look at the [i]facts[/i]):
[quote]Israel responded with characteristic brutality, swiftly bombing two
Palestinian cities. Israeli bombardment of Khan Younis on 18 February killed
at least three civilians, including a 40- year-old woman and her 14-year-old
daughter. Meanwhile, in the Balata refugee camp, two more Palestinian
civilians, including a housewife, were killed, reportedly by Israeli
soldiers disguised as Palestinians.[/quote][i][Supra][/i]
In addition, notice again the illegal (according to US law) Israeli
deployment of US supplied equipment to attack Palestine:
[quote]Within hours of the operation that exploded the Merkava, the fallout
was being felt in Nablus, Ramallah and Gaza. Israeli planes, including
US-made F-16 fighter jets and Apache helicopter gunships, targeted
Palestinian public buildings and police facilities in all three cities.
Israeli "death squads" also resumed their extra-judicial assassinations of
Palestinian activists with the killing of Hamas activist Nazih Abu Siba'a on
Saturday, 16 February, in Jenin. The 30-year-old teacher was killed
instantly when he started his booby-trapped car before heading home from
work. Siba'a joins a list of nearly 100 Palestinian political and resistance
activists assassinated by Israel since the outbreak of the
Intifada.[/quote][i][Supra][/i]
[quote]And in another daring operation on Saturday evening, a young
Palestinian man succeeded in penetrating the tight security around the
settlement of Karni Shamron, built on occupied land near Tulkarm. The
22-year-old, blew himself up, killing two settlers, along with himself. The
Israeli army reacted to the bombing -- this time carried out by the leftist
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) -- with more of the
same: F-16 and Apache raids on public buildings and police
facilities.[/quote][i][Supra][/i]
Worth noting that the last time Israel used US supplied military equipment
on the civilian population, Israel claimed that it was an emergency and that
they wouldn't do it again... I wonder if they have dreamt up a new reason
why they should not be placed under an embargo and have not just all aid,
but all trade, suspended - as is required under US law?
[url=http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,211549,00.html]New
Violence Deepens Sharon's Crisis[/url] [b]Another excellent article[/b]
It addresses the critical comments about "a few" "conscientious objectors"
raised here previously:
[quote]That call was echoed from the center this week when a group
comprising 1,000 top echelon reserve officers began campaigning for a
withdrawal from all of Gaza and most of the West Bank, recognition of a
Palestinian state and immediate, unconditional negotiation.[/quote]
[url=http://www.msnbc.com/news/713159.asp?0si=-]A shift in the Middle East
conflict[/url]
More careful targeting?
[quote]Israeli troops also entered Gaza City for the first time in 17 months
of fighting and blew up the Voice of Palestine radio station. In the past
two days alone, more than two dozen Palestinians have been killed in the
fighting.[/url]
More "Conscientious objectors?
[quote]Sharon’s left-wing critics are being led by an influential group of
retired Israeli generals and security chiefs. Another revolt is brewing
within the Israeli army, where lower ranking reservists are refusing to
serve in the occupied West Bank and Gaza... The group, called the Council
for Peace and Security, is made up of more than 1,000 reserve generals,
officers and former senior members of Israel’s Shin Bet and Mossad security
services. With their influence, they are hard for Sharon to ignore.[/quote]
The final paragraph is worth quoting in full:
[quote]“We can now openly say that we are losing the present round that
began in September 2000,” Maariv columnist Amnon Dankner wrote. “We either
do not want or are not capable of winning a military victory, depending on
your political position. Nor are we willing or capable of determining a
diplomatic plan. What remains is a gory battle in which we are losing blood,
are weakening from a moral aspect, and losing the military
initiative.”[/quote]
Finally, on a different notes, it seems that the Mr. Rumsfeld has discovered
what he could have learnt here for free in November 2001:
[quote] “We’re really organized and trained and equipped to fight armies and
navies and air forces. We’re not organized to do manhunts; that’s a
law-enforcement-type thing. We’re trying to figure out different ways of
doing it,” Rumsfeld said. A senior official told the Times that a review of
the U.S. military action in Afghanistan has concluded that “we’ve probably
gotten about a third of the core leadership” of bin Laden’s al-Qaida
guerrilla group. The White House now defines the scope of that leadership as
between 20 and 25 key figures. [Hermit: i.e. closely matching my estimate of
6 to 8 of the central leadership - relatively unimportant in a distributed
terrorist operation][/quote] [url=http://www.msnbc.com/news/714883.asp]U.S.
unsure of bin Laden’s location[/url] [Hermit: Loose translation "They seek
him here, they seek him there/Those Yankees seek him everywhere/Is he in
heaven or is he in hell?/That damned bearded bin Laden eel!"] For some
better news, it seems that Saudi Arabia has managed to avoid all of the
potential disasters that the Hadjj threatened.
[ur=http://www.msnbc.com/news/710958.asp]Hajj pilgrims stone the devil[/url]
and that the US is "reluctantly" becoming involved in Afghanistan
[url]http://www.msnbc.com/news/710484.asp[/url].
A good page of links can be located at
[url=http://www.msnbc.com/news/attack_front.asp?0cb=-616482]Complete
Coverage[/url]
Regards
Hermit
PS And while referring to historical things, a few of you may be amused by
the following story...
[url]http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict?Form=Dict2&Database=jargon&Queryory+of+Mel']The
Story of Mel[/url].
PPS And a fun page of links for various ages and education
levels[url=http://www.labarchive.net/labdb/all]The Lab Archive at Everett
Community College[/url] for those interested in science and biology -
especially those interested in "doing science."
PPPS We have discussed "Plant Intelligence" before. Special note to Loki -
in our archives is discussion about the fact that some plants engage in
mutual defense - and that due to the rate of propagation (km/min) can only
be triggered by electrical communications... In addition, we have discussed
the problem that we probably could not recognize "plant intelligence" even
if it existed. The seminal work on the "nervous system of plants" is
probably "Plant Autographs and their Revelations", Sir Jagadis Chunder
Bose", Longmans & Green, London, 1927. He relied on very precise "optical
sphygamometers" and amplifying galvanometers to measure the rate of
electrical signal transmission by the "nervous system" of plants and the
effects of drugs, cold, on such "nervous transmission", proving that
simulation is transmitted throughout plants at rates as high as 400mm per
second, by a double layered "nervous system" which reacts similarly to given
drugs as the human CNS does. Perhaps kings and cabbages share more than just
chromosomes... certainly he proved that there is no difference between the
nerve tissues of frogs and of ferns - including the Bahnung reaction and in
some plants (mimosa) the transmission of complex reactions by means of
afferent and efferent actuation of tissue. Meanwhile animals share the
eukaryote branch, itself a late offshoot of the archea, with fungi (our
closest relatives - uplifting thought) and both primary branches ended up
with mitochondria, while plants and algae split from the bacterial branch
and developed chloroplasts instead. Interestingly, most of the task of
sharing DNA around seems to have been performed by bacteria - our DNA is
full of ancient legacies - as is that of plants. When a population is placed
under stress, this serves as a source for rapid pattern adaptation. I
recommend again
[url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345435249/thehermit0d]"Darwin's
Radio" by Gregg Bear[/url]
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