middle east

Andy then put forward a viable alternative.... Ground troops would result in more Israeli deaths than Lebanese, so a more realistic alterntive would be needed.

If you (like the international community) is unable to come up with an alternative then you have no right to criticise Israel... The only other alterntive would be to sit back and enjoy the Hizbu'llah onslaught.

A diplomatic solution earlier - Hezbollah wanted to negotiate from the start.

The rocket attacks started after Israel's 'belliocose' reponse, stopped when Israel suspended it to investigate its cock ups, and agreed to stop along with the offensive.

You can't agree to prisoner exchanges half the time, and decimate the country another.

And if it has to be a military response:

- no cluster bombs in civilian areas
- no phosphorous in civilian areas
- no targetting of civilian facilities (as defined by the Geneva conventions)
- time for the civilians to be evacutated
- no destruction of facilties (roads, bridges, airports) required for civilians to be evacuated
- humanitarian aid for civilians caught up in fighting
- compensation for civilians for wrongly destroyed property and life

Also, if you want the international community on your side

- don't kill their observers.

LOL they kidnap 2 soldiers, killed more, then fired a barrage of missiles into Israel!

You're blinded by your own bigotry.

You ignore the reality.

The Israelis then proceeded to kill 600 civilians, failed to get the soldiers back and failed to stop the rockets.

Unjustifiable.

Joe, we actually agree on the vast majority of news-worthy topics if you check back.

I suspect if you weren't Jewish you'd be alongside the international community and I in condemning the scale of the Israeli response.

I can tell you haven't read it

Why should Israel comply to a law the rest of the world doesn't?

We've just established that Hizbu'llah use civilian facilities as military bases! How can you fight a war if you're unable to attack your enemy?

But this provides Hizbu'llah the oppertunity to smuggle out the kidnapped soldiers!!!!

Also required for the movement of arms and militants... Its standard practise in war Andy - show me modern war where this hasn't happened..... The only reason it's an issue this time round is because the jews are the ones doing it.

There was aid?

LMAO!!!! In that case we owe billions to the Iraqi's and Afghan, billions to the viatnamese, this is the most insane comment you've ever made!

Hizbu'llah start a war and you expect Israel to pay compensation!?!?!?!? When have the defenders ever paid out compensation to the aggressors?!?!?!?

Maj.-Gen. MacKenzie on Maj. Hess-von Kruedener's email.

"What that means is, in plain English, 'We've got Hezbollah fighters running around in our positions, taking our positions here and then using us for shields and then engaging the (Israeli Defence Forces)," he said.

The only possible purpose of your comment is an attempt to besmirch Israel, the UN observers weren't hit purposely, they were friendly fire! Your distortion of the truth to demonize the state of Israel is a standard tactic of the modern anti-Semite.

600 civilians?!?!?!?!?!

Did you pull that statistic out of your arse?

No Andy, I was naive several years ago... With age comes wisdom, I've engrossed myself in middle east conflict educating myself to a very high standard.

I used to believe the mujahideen & Hamas were freedom fighters, I used to think that the Arabs wanted peace, I used to believe that 9/11 was semi-justified.... I was an idiot.

I can tell you have, hence the hesitation in responding.

No, yours actually - 1000 died according to most sources, of which you claimed '300' were militants, so I'm actually underestimating.

Amnesty quantifies as such:

I'll take any reasonable statistic from any reasonable source you would prefer, as I'm not aware of any news agency you don't think is institutionally anti-Semitic.

How many Lebanese civilians did your army kill in your opinion?

Helpfully, they've tried to quantify the damage as well:

It's a wonder they managed to miss so many launchers.

I gave you an Israeli statistic half way through the conflict!

It's impossible to say how many civilians lost their lives, the IDF have the Hizbu'llah death toll at 440+

Andy do you actually know what a launcher is?

So with 1100 deaths, 440 militants, we're looking at about a 60% chance of a Lebanese person killed by Israel being innocent.

Which is a tragic statistic, however the blame lands solely on the shoulders of Hizbu'llah militants that use those civilians as human shields.

You can do it from a pipe if you need to....

Did you hear the quote about "trying to kill a fly with a shotgun"?

"Blame lands solely"?

You've changed your tune...

A few days ago you claimed the Americans were partly responsible for the deaths of people in the WTC's!

a fly that levelled northern towns in Israel to the ground....

We're not talking Qassam rockets, we're talking Fajr- 3 missiles!