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From: hjm@ihlpf.UUCP (Moore)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Terrorism
Message-ID: <215@ihlpf.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 19-Nov-85 22:30:58 EST
Article-I.D.: ihlpf.215
Posted: Tue Nov 19 22:30:58 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 26-Nov-85 21:17:49 EST
References: <215@gargoyle.UUCP> <7800595@inmet.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 46
Keywords: PLO, Israel, responsibility

> 
> >The PLO, on the other hand, has made innocent bystanders (children on
> >a school bus, an American tourist in a wheelchair, etc.) their primary
> >targets.  The groups involved in these attacks proudly take credit,
> >and are never denounced by anyone connected in any way with the PLO.
> 
> How many Palestinian children and innocent bystanders have been
> killed by Israeli bombings? If you beleive in "an eye for eye ..."
> then I think you would agree that the odds are against them.
> 

Just for a moment ...
You come across two groups, both with arbitrary, generally non-descript
differences, which only they are fully capable of seeing (or so they claim.)
Since they happen to be at war (and wars are interesting,) you read about them,
watch what they do, how they each fight, etc.. While watching, you notice
something interesting:
+ One group (it doesnt matter which,) when they place a military headquarters,
etc., has a strong tendency to use places like apartments, or other buildings
where there will be a maximum of civilian casualties if they are attacked.
+ The other group, however, has a tendency to isolate their headquarters, etc.,
thereby minimizing the number of civilian casualties in the event of an attack.

While watching, you also notice some interesting differences in their
respective modes of combat:
+ The first group has the strange habit of selecting, as primary targets,
civilian busses, resturants, tourists, cars, crowded sidewalks, etc..
+ The second group however, tends to select as their primary targets the first
groups training camps, military headquarters, fighters, arms stashes, etc..

When either group fights, civilians tend to get killed. There is a difference
however:
+ when the first group attacks, their goal often appears to be
to kill or injure civilians, to make a bloody mess, to kill the uninvolved,
+ when the second group attacks, they often cannot avoid killing civilians
because of what would appear to be the deliberate efforts of the first group
to place their targets in such a way as to ensure the greatest loss of civilian
life.

Which group would you consider more responsible for the loss of innocent lives?

-------------------
Whatever shall be, probably won't.
-------------------
Hank Moore
ihnp4!ihlpf!hjm