It has been suggested in the “pro-Palestinian” thread that the pictures from the Arab character in Jerusalem were being shown essentially on a loop, the same small piece of footage being shown over and over again. I tend to believe this was the case (watching the coverage on CNN, CBC and BBC, the only clip I saw was repeated several times on all three, and spent most of the time focussing in on one individual). Whether it was indicative of the feeling throughout the occupied territories is not my primary concern. What is of interest to me is the likelihood of seeing a similar grotesque celebration in the event the Americans use military force (translates as bomb the sh!t out of) Kabul or Baghdad. If my memories of the CNN coverage out of the Gulf War are correct, we are going to see the same sort of perverted behaviour in the streets of America. And of course there is going to be the frat boy mentality (again, memories of the Gulf War) and their drunken parties celebrating the bombing of a civilian population centre.
Tuesday’s actions were obscene, the reactions caught in Jerusalem were grotesque. Likewise the killing of civilians in a retaliatory raid would be obscene, and any celebration of a revenge attack would be just as grotesque.
It is my belief that we could defeat our “opponent” and still maintain the moral high ground as far as leaving civilian populations unscathed.
If I recall correctly, the vast majority of our efforts in the Gulf War, and hence our celebratory manner afterwards, were on military targets. The accuracy of our modern armaments allows us to strike military targets of a lesser technology with nigh impunity, and scarcly touch the surrounding areas.
If whomever we end up smacking silly is stupid enough to keep large amounts of military targets - be it communications centers, SAM sites, armored vehicles, aircraft or supplies, we have a massive advantage in being able to wipe out their major military hardware (many places, especially Afganistan, can hide small numbers of troops throuout their countryside rather easily) without endangering a large civilian populace.
That is, we shouldn’t inflict more civilian casualties on them than they did to us.
I can’t seem to find a cite for it, and perhaps someone in the know would be able to tell me, but I read somewhere that 11th of September is some sort of Holiday in Palistine.
If so, that would explain the celebration in the streets. Also, if it was a celebration of an attack against America, why none of the usual effigy / flag burning?
I’m starting to become skeptical myself-how do we know this wasn’t staged, or anything like that? I mean, it’s not like the media is above this sort of thing?
I would think that the people wouldn’t be cheering-they’d be scared of retaliation, wouldn’t they?
According to this article: http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_2.html
The reason we have not seen any different footage of the celebrations is that the Palestinian Authority is preventing camera crews from filming the celebrations. Every news source I read says that the celebration were located in multiple sites and involved thousands of palestinians. I understand the skepticism because it is hard for most of us to comprehend the hatred these people have for us.
I’m afraid that the accuracy of the weapons used in the Gulf War has been disputed (I’ll search for cites). In any case, would the Pentagon constitute a military target or a civilian target?