“At least 200 Palestinians, including women and children, have been killed in an Israeli aerial bombardment on Hamas security installations. Some of the Israeli missiles struck in densely populated areas as children were leaving school, and women rushed into the streets frantically looking for their children. Israeli military officials said more than 100 tons of bombs were dropped on Gaza by mid-afternoon.
Ehud Barak, the Israeli defense minister, said that the operation would not be short. “The operation will go on and be intensified as long as necessary," he said on Saturday. An Israeli military spokesman added that any "Hamas target is a target”. Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, condemned the attack and demanded an immediate cessation.
Hours after the Israeli assault, Gaza fighters fired home-made rockets into southern Israel, heeding calls by Hamas and other affiliated Palestinian groups to avenge the attacks, unprecedented in their scale. One Israeli was killed in the rocket fire, medics said.
Taher al-Noono, a Hamas spokesman, described Israel's operation as a "massacre", adding: "However, our resolve cannot be dented and cannot be shaken. We will continue our struggle with absolute strength and steadfastness."
Gaza is densely populated. Palestine’s 1.5 million resident’s area already experiencing shortages in medicine, power and basic supplies due to 18 months of an Israeli blockade. The ceasefire expired on December 19, with Hamas arguing that Israel had violated the truce by preventing vital food and medical supplies into the Strip.
Hamas won control of the Palestinian Legislative Council in elections in January 2005. The international community refused to accept a Hamas-led government, demanding that the faction recognize Israel and renounce violence. Economic sanctions by the EU and US followed.
The international community has condemned the Israeli attacks, urging an immediate stop to violence in the region. Britain said Saturday that it was deeply concerned and called for "maximum restraint" from Israel.”
Now we have varying reports like always on casualties. Some media says mostly Hamas targets were hit and some say mostly civilians were hit. Wounded is anywhere in between 600-1500*, but over 300* dead is agreed on. This is maddening. I view Palestine as a prison country which is constantly denied basic human rights. It is no wonder they have lawlessness which attacks Israel with basic rockets which barely harm anything. Then Israel returns with bombers and advanced military? This is insanity. I do not know the answer to this problem in Israel-Palestine, but something needs to change before Palestine is wiped out in the future.
Israel already has admitted they are going to keep up this assault. I have yet to understand how rocket fire is terrorism while using advanced military rockets is always viewed as strategic. Terrorism is terrorism; any attack on unarmed civilians is a terrorist act. I doubt the Israeli government gives much of a dam which Palestinians are killed.
Updated 12/31/08:
"Israel resisted mounting international pressure Wednesday to suspend its devastating air offensive against militants in Hamas-ruled Gaza, sending more troops and tanks to the border as signs of an impending ground invasion multiplied. A long column of tanks and other army vehicles, two and three abreast, was strung out along an access road to Gaza. Dozens of tanks were parked in a rain-sodden field on the frontier.
Commanders were moving forward with preparations for a possible ground assault, said an Israeli defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.
Earlier this week the government approved the callup of more than 9,000 reserves soldiers.'
Israel has kept up the war and recently turned down a truce. Civilian casualties are unknown as the classification for what is considered an "evil" Hamas militant is unclear. I am not religious so Israel to me is lucky to exist because I do not view them as special people or any special rights to land. How the Palestinians have been treated sense the end of WW2 is disturbing. I am surprised the Palestinians survive as much as they do under such circumstances.
Hamas should probably stop randomly shooting rockets and save them for military targets this would give them more support world wide and put more of the spotlight on the Israeli's. A ground war into Palestine would definitely result in civilian oppression and death.
This struggle is getting old and cannot continue forever. Even if the Palestinians were free suddenly Israel has stolen so much land from them I do not know if they could be much of a country. I am sure they would take the chance then be under the rule of a foreign military who hates them.
http://www.presstv.ir
http://news.yahoo.com
http://www.jpost.com
http://english.aljazeera.net
12/31/08 http://news.yahoo.com
(*=Updated whenever)
Posted by Azraelsjudgement
lørdag 27. desember 2008
mandag 1. desember 2008
Mumbai Attacks
When an International incident like the Mumbai attacks happens I usually give it time for the dust to settle to figure out what is going on. The dust has yet to really settle so here are my first impressions. Living in the USA makes information suspect especially when it comes from overseas. In Mumbai, India it appears gunmen of probable Pakistani origins carried out multiple violent attacks with bombs and gunmen.
“When the rampage began, gunmen opened fire at several locations throughout the city, including a crowded train station, a popular restaurant and several luxury hotels. The terrorists apparently sought victims with British or American passports. Attacks began on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 and ended Saturday, November 29, 2008. The locations attacked were:
1. Taj Mahal Palace and Tower
2. Hotel Oberoi
3. Cama Hospital
4. Trident Hotel
5. Ramada Hotel Mumbai
6. Cafe Leopold
7. Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
8. Nariman House
At least 195 people have died in the attacks, including 22 foreigners and six Americans. A formerly unknown group that calls itself the Deccan Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for the attacks.”
With even just this basic information people could let emotions cloud judgment on what happened. The group that claims responsibility could indeed just be a front group. This seems to have been a well planned attack. It seems too well done in fact to be done by some upstart group. There are many suspects. I of course do not believe Pakistan itself is responsible, but this could be used as an excuse for India to butt heads with it rival, maybe even start a war. Pakistan is in no state to start a war, but India is. Could the Indian military be responsible for the attacks? It is certainly a possibility, as well as CIA involvement as well. The first suspects in a terrorist attack should always be the government or a government that would benefit from the attacks. Then next on the list should be disgruntled religious and ethnic groups.
India does have a nuclear agreement with the USA which could anger its rivals and their disgruntled radical groups. Not to mention India’s rising power in Asia. The fact Americans, British, and Jews could have been targeted seems that the reasons behind the attacks could move away from anger towards India and more towards the west. Of course that could be their secondary goal while their first was to attack India. There are many possible variables and scenarios that could be the pre-text for this attack. Right now it is all assumption.
It appears CNN interviewed Deepak Chopra a famous Indian about the attack, but cut him off when he got too controversial. They cut him off after the following remarks:
“What we call "collateral damage" and going after the wrong people actually turns moderates into extremists, and that inflammation then gets organized and appears as this disaster in Bombay. Now the worst thing that could happen is there's a backlash on the Muslims from the fundamental Hindus in India, which then will perpetuate the problem. Inflammation will create more inflammation. ”Ultimately the message is always toward Washington because it's also the perception that Washington, in their way, directly or indirectly funds both sides of the war on terror. They fund our side, then our petrol dollars going to Saudi Arabia through Pakistan and ultimately these terrorist groups, which are very organized. You know Jonathan, it takes a lot of money to do this. It takes a lot of organization to do this. Where's the money coming from, you know? The money is coming from the vested interests. I'm not talking about conspiracy theories, but what happens is, our policies, our foreign policies, actually perpetuate this problem. Because, you know, 25% of the world's population is Muslim and they're the fastest growing segment of the population of the world. The more we alienate the Muslim population, the more the moderates are likely to become extremists.”
I can see why the State run media would cut him off after essentially telling people the truth about how Washington funds many different sides of the same war, not mention murders many on each side. He also has a point in how Hindu’s could retaliate against Muslims which would cause escalation. Leave it to the media to be too scared to pick his brain more or show it at least.
I will keep following this story to see what else comes up. This is going to be rough with the USA government “helping” with the investigation. Any information that comes out of the media needs to be treated with suspect. In conclusion I have no idea what the real story is and am not about to commit to any theory.
Another random point I need to make is as always the bad guys were armed and the victims were not. This is also another example of how police arrive too little too late. If you wish to stay alive then you need to be armed. Governments of course make this as difficult as possible so to make you dependent on their bad security services. It only takes a few armed people to kill many unarmed people. The bombs there is not much to do about except understand why someone would bomb people in the first place?!
Update: 12/2/08
A Mumbai Photographer wished he had a gun because police refused to fire.
"The gunmen were terrifyingly professional, making sure at least one of them was able to fire their rifle while the other reloaded. By the time he managed to capture the killer on camera, Mr D'Souza had already seen two gunmen calmly stroll across the station concourse shooting both civilians and policemen, many of whom, he said, were armed but did not fire back. "I first saw the gunmen outside the station," Mr D'Souza said. "With their rucksacks and Western clothes they looked like backpackers, not terrorists, but they were very heavily armed and clearly knew how to use their rifles."
"There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything," he said. "At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, 'Shoot them, they're sitting ducks!' but they just didn't shoot back."
Update 12/4/08:
The best theory so far I have heard is that radicals who are fighting American/Coalition forces in Afghanistan provoked problems between Pakistan and India which could explain why they also targeted Westerners and Jews. This would force Pakistan to move its forces away from radical cells on the Pakistani/Afghan border and move then to their border with India. This would free up groups to hide in Pakistan and attack American forces in Aghanistan easier.
This makes the most sense because it is a brilliant strategy if you are a Guerilla group.
Posted by AzraelsJudgement
“When the rampage began, gunmen opened fire at several locations throughout the city, including a crowded train station, a popular restaurant and several luxury hotels. The terrorists apparently sought victims with British or American passports. Attacks began on Wednesday, November 26, 2008 and ended Saturday, November 29, 2008. The locations attacked were:
1. Taj Mahal Palace and Tower
2. Hotel Oberoi
3. Cama Hospital
4. Trident Hotel
5. Ramada Hotel Mumbai
6. Cafe Leopold
7. Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
8. Nariman House
At least 195 people have died in the attacks, including 22 foreigners and six Americans. A formerly unknown group that calls itself the Deccan Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for the attacks.”
With even just this basic information people could let emotions cloud judgment on what happened. The group that claims responsibility could indeed just be a front group. This seems to have been a well planned attack. It seems too well done in fact to be done by some upstart group. There are many suspects. I of course do not believe Pakistan itself is responsible, but this could be used as an excuse for India to butt heads with it rival, maybe even start a war. Pakistan is in no state to start a war, but India is. Could the Indian military be responsible for the attacks? It is certainly a possibility, as well as CIA involvement as well. The first suspects in a terrorist attack should always be the government or a government that would benefit from the attacks. Then next on the list should be disgruntled religious and ethnic groups.
India does have a nuclear agreement with the USA which could anger its rivals and their disgruntled radical groups. Not to mention India’s rising power in Asia. The fact Americans, British, and Jews could have been targeted seems that the reasons behind the attacks could move away from anger towards India and more towards the west. Of course that could be their secondary goal while their first was to attack India. There are many possible variables and scenarios that could be the pre-text for this attack. Right now it is all assumption.
It appears CNN interviewed Deepak Chopra a famous Indian about the attack, but cut him off when he got too controversial. They cut him off after the following remarks:
“What we call "collateral damage" and going after the wrong people actually turns moderates into extremists, and that inflammation then gets organized and appears as this disaster in Bombay. Now the worst thing that could happen is there's a backlash on the Muslims from the fundamental Hindus in India, which then will perpetuate the problem. Inflammation will create more inflammation. ”Ultimately the message is always toward Washington because it's also the perception that Washington, in their way, directly or indirectly funds both sides of the war on terror. They fund our side, then our petrol dollars going to Saudi Arabia through Pakistan and ultimately these terrorist groups, which are very organized. You know Jonathan, it takes a lot of money to do this. It takes a lot of organization to do this. Where's the money coming from, you know? The money is coming from the vested interests. I'm not talking about conspiracy theories, but what happens is, our policies, our foreign policies, actually perpetuate this problem. Because, you know, 25% of the world's population is Muslim and they're the fastest growing segment of the population of the world. The more we alienate the Muslim population, the more the moderates are likely to become extremists.”
I can see why the State run media would cut him off after essentially telling people the truth about how Washington funds many different sides of the same war, not mention murders many on each side. He also has a point in how Hindu’s could retaliate against Muslims which would cause escalation. Leave it to the media to be too scared to pick his brain more or show it at least.
I will keep following this story to see what else comes up. This is going to be rough with the USA government “helping” with the investigation. Any information that comes out of the media needs to be treated with suspect. In conclusion I have no idea what the real story is and am not about to commit to any theory.
Another random point I need to make is as always the bad guys were armed and the victims were not. This is also another example of how police arrive too little too late. If you wish to stay alive then you need to be armed. Governments of course make this as difficult as possible so to make you dependent on their bad security services. It only takes a few armed people to kill many unarmed people. The bombs there is not much to do about except understand why someone would bomb people in the first place?!
Update: 12/2/08
A Mumbai Photographer wished he had a gun because police refused to fire.
"The gunmen were terrifyingly professional, making sure at least one of them was able to fire their rifle while the other reloaded. By the time he managed to capture the killer on camera, Mr D'Souza had already seen two gunmen calmly stroll across the station concourse shooting both civilians and policemen, many of whom, he said, were armed but did not fire back. "I first saw the gunmen outside the station," Mr D'Souza said. "With their rucksacks and Western clothes they looked like backpackers, not terrorists, but they were very heavily armed and clearly knew how to use their rifles."
"There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything," he said. "At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, 'Shoot them, they're sitting ducks!' but they just didn't shoot back."
Update 12/4/08:
The best theory so far I have heard is that radicals who are fighting American/Coalition forces in Afghanistan provoked problems between Pakistan and India which could explain why they also targeted Westerners and Jews. This would force Pakistan to move its forces away from radical cells on the Pakistani/Afghan border and move then to their border with India. This would free up groups to hide in Pakistan and attack American forces in Aghanistan easier.
This makes the most sense because it is a brilliant strategy if you are a Guerilla group.
Posted by AzraelsJudgement
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