See this page for links to articles on OpEdNEws that articulate both sides on the issues in the middle east. It is the goal of OpEdNews to air opinions from both sides to stretch the envelope of discussion and communication. Hate statements are not accepted. Discussions of issues and new ideas for solutions are encouraged. .We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Our Declaration of Independence separates us from terrorists.
We believe man, in fact all mankind, has an expectation, a right, to life. We believe this is an "unalienable right," in fact a sacred right not granted by man but by a higher power, our Creator and incapable of repudiation. The right to life cannot be taken by another man.
The terrorists don't believe we, or any man, apparently, has an expectation to life. The terrorists have shown that they can commit, intend to commit and are committed to intentional, indiscriminate killing of innocent strangers.
What makes this so devious, so desperately troubling, is this. A part of the terrorist movement has, will have or wants to have nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The actions of the terrorists to date tell us that they are released from our inhibitions to kill indiscrimately by using nuclear weapons and other WMD.
And the terrorists are being encouraged, fueled and even driven toward the use of WMD by the likes of Iranian President Ahmadinejad, various Imams, Mosques, madras's, political activists and others.
This means, for the terrorists, all treaties, all normal forms of the so called "laws of war," and all the normal underpinnings of negotiation are off the table.
We need to think very carefully about what this means for the United States and the Western World and where we go from here. But before we do let's review the situation further.
--On August 10, British police announced that they uncovered a plot to explode several commercial airliners, simultaneously or nearly so, filled with passengers in mid-flight using liquid explosives carried aboard in hand luggage. News reports told us that these terrorist were apparently using a previously foiled multi-aircraft liquid explosive plot over the Pacific Ocean as a guidepost.
--On August 10, the film "World Trade Center" had just opened, providing a renewal of our awareness of the tragedy of September 11, 2001.
--On August 10, in Lebanon, Hezbollah continued to use Katyusha rockets to bombard Haifa and other targets in Israel. News services reported that Hezbollah has now fired more than 3,333 of these unguided rockets. These unguided rockets are intentionally and indiscriminately killing innocent civilians.
To put this in a nutshell, Israel is using a conventional military force
Bound by restrictions on the indiscriminate killing of civilians, to find and kill people lobbing unguided rockets into their civilian population with no restrictions on their use of indiscriminate killing; a kind of asymmetric warfare of the most heinous sort.
Despite reports of the tragedy at Qana, to show the extend of Israel's care in avoiding the indiscriminate killing of civilians, numerous news reports have shown Israel's extensive use of aircraft dropped leaflets to warn Lebanese civilians of impending attacks.
In a story in the Los Angeles Times by Ashraf Khalil on August 1, Khalil detailed how the Israelis are also phoning innocent civilians on cell phones to warn them of impending danger due to military action.
--On August 10, former Israeli Prime Minister Mr. Benjamin told reporters that Iran is working on nuclear weapons and "eventually after crying wolf, you face the wolf, and this wolf has nuclear teeth, and it will bite, of that I'm sure."
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