A recent picture on the front page of The Independent was worth the proverbial thousand words. Actually, it was more powerful than all the words in the world. It was a picture of a mother and her son, both drenched in blood, the mother lying on the floor, obviously dying, with her eyes turned to her son.
The look in her eyes was of someone who knows the worst is yet to come and that her son, who looked about 10 or 12 years old, would have to face a cruel life without her. The son, holding her hand, was obviously facing his own moment of shock and agony; his tears were flowing and fear was written all over his face. The picture haunted everyone who saw the paper on that sad morning. The headline under the picture was “War Crimes?” and I have to say if that was not a war crime, then there is no hope for justice in this world.
The world’s maddening and incomprehensible silence toward what is happening in Lebanon is both frightening and revolting. Why is so much killing going on without a single word of condemnation from the “civilized” world? Don’t the leaders of the “free world” see the images of destruction coming from the once beautiful country that was Lebanon? Don’t they see the pictures we all see every day, not only from the Arabic media but also — fortunately for them and their ability to believe — pictures printed and circulated in their own countries by their own media?
I am being emotional and personal in this situation because that is how it feels to all people who have a heart and can see with eyes that have not been shut by hate and prejudice. The plain facts themselves in Lebanon are, however, bad enough whether the eyes wish to see or not.
The UN report by Jan Egeland stated that one third of the Lebanese civilians killed by Israel’s attacks have been children. Why were these children killed? Were they Hezbollah fighters? When the Israeli Army told people in the village of Marwaheen to evacuate their homes, the villagers did exactly that. Yet while their convoy was leaving, it was hit by an Israeli F-16 fighter-bomber and 20 of them — civilians all — were killed. Why?
In his article entitled “The Most Dangerous Alliance in the World” Norman Solomon says the war is “government criminality. High-Tech Terror. Mass Murder from the sky.” He quoted a Reuters journalist in Lebanon who said, “As an American, I am embarrassed and ashamed.” He is not the only one to be ashamed; we should all be ashamed for living in such horrible times.
The honorable gentleman might be ashamed but his government is unfortunately not. Just listen to how casually Bush talked about the war during the microphone gaffe at the G-8; he was talking about the war in the same voice he used when thanking Blair for a sweater! He simply told the Israelis to avoid civilian targets!
But it is the civilians who are being hit and displaced; it is the civilians whose country is being destroyed. If Israel wanted to attack Hezbollah, they should have gone after it and its members but they did not. They opted instead to destroy roads, houses and mosques; they opted to kill mothers and children. Mothers and children are easier targets. It is far easier and safer to kill them than armed soldiers and fighters.
Worse still, nobody in the American government will allow even a word of support for the Lebanese people. When Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki denounced Israel’s “criminal” raids on Lebanon and Gaza and warned that violence could escalate across the Middle East, a group of US Congressmen demanded he apologize for his remarks. They threatened to cancel his scheduled address to Congress and said in a widely-circulated letter that his “failure to condemn Hezbollah’s aggression and recognize Israel’s right to defend itself raises serious questions about whether Iraq under your leadership can play a constructive role in resolving the current crisis and bringing stability to the Middle East.”!!
Raises serious questions? What question is more serious than the one, which seeks to learn why normal people with no responsibility for the conflict they are trapped in have no right to live in peace or even to live at all?
