Why is Israel's war on Lebanon killing so many innocent civilians and so few guerillas? While you see a lot of pictures of Israeli artillery, most civilian deaths seem to be from airstrikes on buildings and vehicles, rather than shelling. And in those airstrikes, the Israelis are using a lot of US-supplied precision-guided munitions, which means they are generally hitting what they aim for - so its not a case of missing the target and killing civilians by accident. Instead, the problem seems to be that they are choosing the wrong targets, either deliberately targetting civilians or simply not bothering to distinguish between Hizbollah and the surrounding populace. But now, some of their pilots are refusing to go along with it:
Yonatan Shapiro, a former Blackhawk helicopter pilot dismissed from reserve duty after signing a 'refusenik' letter in 2004, said he had spoken with Israeli F-16 pilots in recent days and learnt that some had aborted missions because of concerns about the reliability of intelligence information. According to Shapiro, some pilots justified aborting missions out of 'common sense' and in the context of the Israeli Defence Force's moral code of conduct, which says every effort should be made to avoiding harming civilians.Shapiro said: 'Some pilots told me they have shot at the side of targets because they're afraid people will be there, and they don't trust any more those who give them the coordinates and targets.'
He added: 'One pilot told me he was asked to hit a house on a hill, which was supposed to be a place from where Hizbollah was launching Katyusha missiles. But he was afraid civilians were in the house, so he shot next to the house ...
'Pilots are always being told they will be judged on results, but if the results are hundreds of dead civilians while Hizbollah is still able to fire all these rockets, then something is very wrong.'
This is good to see. The Israeli military may be adopting a policy of indiscriminate murder, of assuming everyone remaining in Southern Lebanon after they've bombed all the roads and every vehicle trying to escape is a terrorist, but some of their pilots at least have a conscience. Now, if only their political and military leadership would grow one...
Have you read about this?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/how_we_are_en.asp
I was wondering about this, thanks for this post. I feel like everytime the Israeli govt claims they made a mistake (eg that UN observation post) there will also be coverage showing the targetting system the planes use - which doesn't allow for a lot of error. If the Israeli airforce is really as crap at hitting their targets as their govt claim then you really have to wonder about all that technology and training they buy from the USA - perhaps they should see if they can get their money back under the Consumer Guarantees Act?
ReplyDeleteWho told you that most of the Lebanese killed at the war are civilians? It's just a demaguoge calim. If you have no sure data please don't claim that.
ReplyDeleteLebanon Government speaker told the day before yesterday that 950 Lebanese civilians had died. At the same time IDF speakers spoke on at least 500 HA terrorists killed and count in battle. Most probably, there are some uncounted HA terrorists dead by the IDF.
In any case, the HA use people as shekters in order to influence on the pilots. Israelis as a whole try to avoid targeting if there are civilians in or close to the spoted aim. But as the wars escaltes and the time table is shorten I suppose the Israelis will minimize their demands and will go more hotly on the HA terrorists.