An astonishing comment to the New York Times. I republish it in full because it is so much better than anything I can say, because it is reflective of American opinion/expertise post-Iraq, and because it puts to utter shame our Congress and the Jewish moral philosopher's scales of justness by which he renders the obvious slaughter in Gaza justifiable.
JDS, who are you? Please come forward! Your country needs you. The world needs you! JDS:
I do know something of military matters that are relevant to the
situation now in Gaza.
I am dismayed by the rhetoric from US politicians and pundits to the
effect that "if the US were under rocket attack from Mexico or Canada,
we would respond like the Israelis". This a gross insult to US
servicemen; I can assure you that we would NOT respond like the
Israelis. In fact, US armed forces and adjunct civilians are under
attack constantly in Iraq and Afghanistan by people who are much better
armed, much better trained and far deadlier than Hamas (I'll ignore for
now that the politicians seem to be oblivious to this fact). Israel has
indeed taken a small number of casualties from Hamas rocket fire (about
20 killed since 2001), but we have taken thousands of casualties in
Iraq and Afghanistan, including many civilian personnel. Hundreds of
American casualties have occurred due to indirect fire, often from
mortars. This is particularly true in or near the Green Zone in
Baghdad. This fire often originates from densely populated urban areas.
Americans
do not, I repeat DO NOT, respond to that fire indiscriminately. When I
say "indiscriminately", I mean that even if we can precisely identify
the source of the fire (which can be very difficult), we do not respond
if we know we will cause civilian casualties. We always evaluate the
threat to civilians before responding, and in an urban area the threat
to civilians is extremely high. If US servicemen violate those rules of
engagement and harm civilians, I assure you we do our best to
investigate — and mete out punishment if warranted. There are
differing opinions on the conflict in Iraq, but I am proud of the
conduct of our servicemen there.
With that in mind, I find the
conduct of the Israeli army in Gaza to be brutal and dishonorable, and
it is insulting that they and others claim that the US military would
behave in the same way. I know the Israelis are operating under
difficult circumstances, but their claim that they follow similar rules
of engagement rings hollow; I see little evidence for this claim given
the huge number of civilian casualties they have caused from indirect
fire.
In particular, I am stunned at the Israeli explanation for
the 30+ civilians killed at the UN school. The Israelis say they were
responding to mortar fire from the school. Mortars are insidious
because their high trajectory and lack of primary flash make it very
difficult to trace the source of the fire; you have to have a spotter
locate the crew. The Israelis claim that they traced the source of the
fire precisely to the school; if so, they must have directly spotted
the crew. Thus it is inconceivable that the Israelis did not know that
the target was a crowded UN school, yet they chose to fire on the
school anyhow. I say without hesitation that this is a criminal act. If
the Israelis had said, "sorry, it was an accident", that could indicate
a targeting problem, confusion, or inferior training. But to openly
admit that they responded reflexively to the Hamas fire without
consideration for the inevitable civilian casualties is beyond the
pale. The Israelis blame Hamas for firing from the school (although UN
personnel on the ground dispute this), but choosing to fire directly at
civilians is far worse; it is tantamount to murder. US servicemen do
not behave that way in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we face much deadlier
adversaries (Hamas mortar crews are apparently not very effective: I
believe that all but one of the total Israeli combat fatalities have
been from friendly fire). In the rare and unfortunate cases where US
personnel have willingly targeted civilians, they have been
court-martialed and punished.
The Israeli approach in Gaza
strikes me as uncontrolled and vengeful. My objective analysis is that
it has little tactical effectiveness; my opinion is that its main goal
is to whip the entire Gaza population into submission. This is
disturbingly similar to the Israelis' conduct in Lebanon in 2006, so I
feel obliged to say that the Israeli military displays a concerted
pattern of disregard for civilian lives. I am not a politician, but in
my opinion the US should take some sort of political action in this
regard. If we continue to formally condone Israel's dishonorable and
brutal military conduct in Gaza, I fear there will eventually be dire
consequences for our country.
— JDS, North Carolina
