or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
May 04, 2005
"Anyone Who Moves In The Zone, Even If It's A Three-Year-Old, Should Be Killed"
Harper's Magazine has published a transcript of a recorded radio communication between Israeli soldiers near Rafah, in Gaza. It's not online officially, but Dennis Perrin has typed it in.
You should read the whole thing, but here's the gist:
SENTRY: We spotted an Arab female about 100 meters below our emplacement, near the light armored vehicle gate...OBSERVATION POST: She's now behind an embankment, 250 meters from the barracks. She keeps running east. The hits are right on her.
HEADQUARTERS: Are you talking about a girl under ten?
OP: Approximately a ten-year-old girl... Looks like one of the positions dropped her... She's down. Right now she isn't moving.
COMPANY COMMANDER [to HQ]: Me and another soldier are going in. [To the squad] Forward, to confirm the kill! [to HQ] We fired and killed her. She was...wearing pants...jeans and a vest, shirt. Also she had a kaffiyeh on her head. I also confirmed the kill. Over.
HQ: Roger.
CC: Any motion, anyone who moves in the zone, even if it's a three-year-old, should be killed. Over.
It would be interesting to know whether the guns and bullets used to kill this thirteen year-old girl were made in America. Of course, in the larger sense it doesn't matter, since no matter where the guns and bullets were made we paid for it.
Another interesting question is why this kind of thing makes the Arab world hate us. I guess it's just part of their primitive, benighted culture.
Posted at May 4, 2005 02:05 PM | TrackBackYes. She was, in fact, in a very inappropriate zone, you see. That's it.
Posted by: mk at May 4, 2005 05:11 PMOne way to show that the terrorists have won: by making everyone a suspect.
Posted by: En Ming Hee at May 4, 2005 06:33 PMYou understand that "confirmed the kill" means he emptied his gun into her.
He was later released by a military court, although the whole thing was filmed and sound-recorded, proving their initial story, that they thought her book bag was a bomb, was a lie (she was moving away from them, not towards them, and they never voiced such a fear at the time). My November post on this incident,
http://whateveritisimagainstit.blogspot.com/2004/11/anything-thats-mobile-that-moves-in.html
also has a link to a Guardian story.
Inappropriate zone: Iraq.
Jesus, where are our Democrats? Do they still have the power to speak? What's going on?
Posted by: Matthew Sullivan at May 4, 2005 08:29 PMErr, which Democrats? The one who have been as gung-ho pro-Israel as the Republicans? Or do you have some other ones hidden away somewhere?
Posted by: saurabh at May 4, 2005 11:10 PMAnd today more depressing news. I'd heard accounts of provocateurs and shootings at the recent anti-wall demonstrations this week and then received this news from a friend:
Two children, cousins, shot dead today by IDF soldiers at a anti-wall protest in Beit Liqya. Jamal Jaber Ibrahim Assi, 15 and Odai Mufid Mahmoud Assi, 14.
There was a great article a couple of years ago in Harpers (I think). The journalist basically said he had seen people murdered all over the world in a host of horrible political conflicts, but never had he seen the army of the state taunt young boys out into the street by calling their mothers whores etc. only to have the military shoot the youth down one at a time. Until he went to Isreal.
Posted by: Elayne at May 5, 2005 11:35 AMOf course you're right, saurabh. I had my eyes closed while typing.
Matthew Yglesias wrote about this at Talking Points Memo-- the left really needs to get back to talking about war in time for the midterm elections.
Not that Social Security's not important.
And Matt Taibbi has started the discussion by attacking Joe Biden and the National Security Democrats.
God bless the Axis of Matthews.
Posted by: Matthew Sullivan at May 5, 2005 12:14 PMI was going to find that Hedges quote, but Jonathan is fast on the draw.
I can't really tell what is supposed to separate the democrats and republicans. Basically out here Democrats are Republicans who:
1. Really don't like guns
2. Talk about supporting a 'peaceful solution' in the middle east while taking money from AIPAC hand over fist (on the other hand, the demos often actually have a partly pro-Israel constituency, so they have an excuse, unlike my local Republican congressman who just wants the money and believes we are in a race war against "barbarians" anyway.)
Anoither similar example, i think .. that story that was all over the tv news a couple of months ago about the AS soldier who shot the Iraqi guy who was still living, and moaning, in the mosque in (??) Fallujah, I believe it was ... was just exonerated on the grounds of self-defence.
Posted by: Jon Husband at May 5, 2005 04:42 PMWe're going to hear even less balanced news reporting. NPR has been taken over by the political right. So, save your contributions. Anything you hear that seems unbiased during their support pledge campaign will stop as soon as they cash your check.
Must-Flee TV: How the GOP is taking over at PBS
http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/000508.html
