Yeah - this is terrorism

(Allowable Sunday Rant - see header)

 We were all impressed when the pagers blew up in the hands of "the bad guys" in Lebanon. It was a feat of daring and brilliance. And we (okay I) might not have ever given it much thought, except perhaps as a new tool on the "war on terror."

But then the walkie-talkies blew up. Many at the funerals of people killed by the pagers - like Jews, Muslims strive to bury their dead within 24 hours - so "whoever" did this knew they were going to kill people at funerals.

Ladies and Germs, this process IS terrorism, no two ways about it. Let's define terrorism, again, to remind people. Read this definition, and think about it:

Was it justified? No.

Sure, you can explain it away by saying that only terrorists carry the pagers / or walkie-talkies. But they didn't just kill Hezbollah; they killed and maimed civilians, kids, and ordinary Lebanese. It is intended to maim Hezbollah members AND to intimidate the ordinary folk of Lebanon. That is the fucking DEF-I-NI-TION of terrorism. 

Was it a War Crime? Probably. I quote here:

Several international treaties and protocols to which Israel is a signatory could render these actions by a state such as Israel illegal under international humanitarian law, scholars say.

One particular focus is Article 7(2) of the Amended Protocol II of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which was added to an international law focused on the use of conventional weapons in 1996. Both Israel and Lebanon have agreed to it.

It prohibits the use of booby traps, which Lama Fakih, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, defines as "objects that civilians are likely to be attracted to or are associated with normal civilian daily use."

This would probably be something easy to ignore, but everyone in the USA is a bit of a collaborator here. We give Israel $3,000,000,000.00 ($3 Billion) in military aid. So, we supplied the money for Israel to kill civilians as a War Crime. Remember, Israel is NOT at war with Lebanon. It killed at least 37 civilians and injured over 1,000 others in a country that is not at war with Israel. 

It can be justified; hell, I can easily justify it. But we haven't even thought about the effects on people just trying to live their lives. We simply ignore it and honor Netanyahu with a visit and speech to the US Congress.

And another $3,000,000,000.00 dollars.