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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Eyewitness: Mass burial in Lebanon |
| 2006-07-30 |
| All this is very sad. But this is the result of enabling and/or supporting Hezb'Allah. Blame is shared by anyone who sides with Hezb'Allah, the Syrian and Iranian governments, and anyone who agreed to the empty promises of disarming Hezb'Allah but didn't follow through with their commitments in the UN resolutions. The fact that this blame is shared so broadly does not reduce any individual's culpability. Israel didn't wake up one morning with a half-baked notion to sit in bomb shelters and attack Hezb'Allah. Reading this, you can see some of the forces at play in Lebanese and muslim society that are dishonoring the dead by taking advantage of this grim situation to perpetuate this mindset until they are all destroyed or they figure it out and do away with it. This whole thing looks staged to me, and many reporters are going to be complicit. The short-sighted will read the lines, and the more far-sighted will read the lines and between the lines as well. TYRE, Lebanon (CNN) -- Eight days ago, the Lebanese Army buried 87 bodies in a mass grave in the city of Tyre. Today, they are laying another 34 in the ground. Everyone is covering their face to keep out the stench as Lebanese soldiers remove dozens of bodies from the back of a truck. The first body is a day-old baby -- killed in an Israeli airstrike, according to the Lebanese Army. On her coffin a marking shows she had no name. (Watch as Tyre buries its dead -- 2:13) They've lined up the coffins on the sidewalk; each has either a name or a marking that says "unknown." (Watch as Cal Perry describes the reality of covering the conflict -- 2:58) All have numbers. Coffin No. 104 has three names on it - Ali, Mohammed and Talib - all children. Nearby, Fatawi Horani is screaming and crying. Her granddaughter Marim, 15, was killed, she says, while trying to flee the fighting. Three soldiers begin to struggle with a large body bag. Maggots are pouring from the bag - blood is seeping onto the ground. When they get the body into the coffin, the lid arches as doctors hammer nails into it. Maggots and blood? I wonder. In any case, just how long have you been holding onto this one? Children are beginning to gather. It is images such as these that pass down a hatred of Israel to another generation. Err, what about the people who drove Israel to this? Don't forget to tell your kids about that. A little girl, Maana, is standing nearby, a bandage on her left arm. Her father tells me she was wounded by Israeli jets - but all the passengers in the car in front of them were killed. Without having to count, it's clear that more members of the international press are here than bodies being buried. Journalists were asked to come here to witness the collected horror. Staged? A Shiite sheik arrives and begins talking to members of the media. I pull him aside and ask him one question: "What message would you send to the people of America?" "Israel?" he asks. "No," I reply. "America." "I love the people of America. It's the government I hate. Tell the American people that we received their gift. The missile that they gave to Israel - we have received it, and this is the result," he says, motioning to the coffins. So just what are you trying to say? I thank him, but he says nothing to me - just glares, turns abruptly and walks away. Very dramatic. Remember, Cal, he's a near-sighted thinker. The mayor says that the bodies will be buried here temporarily. When the fighting stops, relatives will be able to come claim their dead and bury them in their hometowns. So the can dig them up if they want to. That would be handy for that case in Iraq right now. |
| Posted by:gorb |
| #19 Saddam at least used to refrigerate the corpses he used for his propaganda marches. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2006-07-30 20:19 |
| #18 Remember: If it bleeds, it leads. Somehow, somewhere Hezbollah really needs to have this carnage laid at their feet. Until that happens, it's all the usual smoke and mirrors. For myself, it is impossible to feel the least sadness about this. The vast majority of these civilians carry forward the endless cycle of hatred and anti-Semitism. Until they can embrace some sense of cooperation and co-existence, they are all SOL. If all of them have to die because of their collective inability to understand this, so be it. I no longer have any patience for such intolerance. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-07-30 16:51 |
| #17 AFAIK, arabic numerals are not used in arabic. There are Arabic numerals, and then "Arabic" numerals. The numerals we use are "Arabic". See here for a comparison of Arabic numerals with our numerals (top two rows). I assume that real Arabic numerals are used routinely when writing in Arabic. I see them on coins and paper money from (duh) Arab countries; I suppose it's possible that they're only used in special circumstances like that. (The Arab money very often has "Arabic" numerals on it too.) |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2006-07-30 16:50 |
| #16 and "Baby Milk Factory" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-07-30 16:35 |
| #15 Are you talking about the use of Arabic numerals instead of Roman? AFAIK, arabic numerals are not used in arabic. This is for international teevee, exactly as the english slogans during demonstration, which by the way denote organization and preplanning. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-07-30 16:33 |
| #14 After one has died, blood coagulation breaks down and fluid (mostly plasma mixed with some red blood cells) leaks out. This can start an hour after death. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-07-30 16:27 |
| #13 then no maggots |
| Posted by: Gil Grissom 2006-07-30 16:15 |
| #12 Or the body hasn't been dead that long. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-07-30 15:58 |
| #11 Mmmm... and that can't have been blood leaking from a bag with a very dead body in it, surely? Fluids of a sort, but not blood. I cant't watch CSI these days without tossing my cookies, but I have read enough of dear Dame Agatha, and the erudite Miss Dorothy S to know that dead bodies do not bleed for very long after becoming...er, dead. Damn careless writing, this, or someone has done a little unneccessary set dressing. |
| Posted by: Sgt. Mom 2006-07-30 15:50 |
| #10 minimum 24 hours |
| Posted by: Gil Grissom 2006-07-30 15:18 |
| #9 I believe CSI says takes 24 hours for maggot eggs to form so this body was laying around awhile, if not exhumed and recycled. |
| Posted by: Danielle 2006-07-30 14:42 |
| #8 Ouch. |
| Posted by: RJB in JC MO 2006-07-30 13:36 |
| #7 Are you talking about the use of Arabic numerals instead of Roman? |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-07-30 13:04 |
| #6 Anyone notice, the numbers for the coffins are always in English? Seems to me, English isn't the first language of any of these people, so why the English numbering system? For the cameras? Just say'n |
| Posted by: Sherry 2006-07-30 12:30 |
| #5 TYRE, Lebanon (CNN) -- Eight days ago, the Lebanese Army buried 87 bodies in a mass grave in the city of Tyre. Today, they are laying another 34 in the ground. Should look up what Alexander did to the population of Tyre after storming it. |
| Posted by: Flaving Omuger5227 2006-07-30 10:23 |
| #4 Hezb has had enough. They want a hudna. They orchestrated this killing in order to force the world to make the Israelis stop. I hope the rest of the world is smart enough to see through such a transparent strategy but I strongly doubt it. What matters, though, is whether GWB is. I'm hoping so because I really want to see Hezb smashed beyond any hope of recovery. I'd like to see them exterminated--that's right, exterminated, killed right down to the last murdering Muzzy bastard. That's what they intend for Israel, complete extermination, and they've never made any secret of it. It's come to that point--it's them or Israel, and I pray to God Israel realizes the situation is that serious and acts accordingly. |
| Posted by: mac 2006-07-30 09:56 |
| #3 Once again, I make it a point that it is a wise decision on the part of the US military not to permit the gratuitous photography of the dead. Friendly or enemy dead, it does not matter the circumstances, it always works against the civilized army of the civilized nation. Even those who understand the context of why it happened are repelled--because civilized people are not brutes. We reject and abhor terrorism, using civilians as human shields, casual murder of women and children to further some fanatical goal. And we make the false assumption that our enemy, being human, hold the same beliefs. So it is a great paradox that the revulsion we feel when looking at such photographs, is against those who try and prevent such massacre; instead of against those who actually promulgate it. We damn the police officers who shoot back, not the faceless mass murderers who use hostages as human shields to fire on the innocent crowd. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-07-30 09:05 |
| #2 So where were the International Journalists when the Israli civilians were deliberately targeted They were busy collecting their checks from news organizations who make a buisness of killing children to shape foreign policy. Do you have a problem with that? |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-07-30 09:01 |
| #1 This could be another case of Pallywood - Hizbollah style. Its been done before - dropped corpses getting up and climing back on the funeral bier and all. BTW: So where were the International Journalists when the Israli civilians were deliberately targetted and killed by rockets and homocide bombers? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2006-07-30 08:46 |
