Ken,
Since I tend to not trust blog sites very much, I did a little deeper "digg"ing on the use of ball bearings in Katyusha rockets by Hezbollah, and came up with this, from Human Rights Watch.
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/07/18/lebano13760.htm
I wasn't appalled only with Israel, but also with Hamas and Hezbollah. I'm sure that articles similar to the one written about the impact on the Lebanese family could be written about Israeli families. War, or terrorist acts, tend to injure people on all sides, either initially, or when retaliated against.
Here's a little more background on Hamas and Hezbollah (both from the Council on Foreign Relations), for background:
http://www.cfr.org/publication/8968/#1
http://www.cfr.org/publication/9155/
This has been an enlightening discussion.
To "pull your chain" a little, here are a couple of sites on Isreal (sic).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isreal
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/Isreal.html
and one from The Weekly Standard:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/001/161yaihr.asp
(hope you can turn off the Albertson's flash ad!)
Kendall
An unreasonable man (but my wife says that's redundant!)
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
-George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950
-----Original Message-----
From: ken barber [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 3:09 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [C-PALSY] Disability Rights (now mideast crisis?)
since everyone is so appalled with Isreal, here is an
article you all need to read:
http://digg.com/world_news/Hezbollah_s_Dangerous_Ball_Bearings
--- Kendall David Corbett <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> This is an article about a student in my town, and
> the impact the Israel/Lebanon situation has had on
> him and his family.
>
> Kendall
>
> An unreasonable man (but my wife says that's
> redundant!)
>
> The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the
> unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the
> world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on
> the unreasonable man.
>
> -George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950
>
>
> Violence hits close for UW student
> By JARED MILLER
> Star-Tribune staff writer Thursday, July 27, 2006
>
>
>
> Richard Semaan, a Lebanese man studying at the
> University of Wyoming in Laramie, is struggling to
> keep tabs on family and friends displaced by the
> bombinig in his home country. Photo by Jaren Miller,
> Casper Star-Tribune.
>
>
> LARAMIE -- Richard Semaan is a busy University of
> Wyoming doctoral student, but these days he spends
> most of his time watching TV and surfing the Web.
>
> The 26-year-old Lebanese man carefully monitors
> 24-hour news channels and scours Arabic and English
> Web sites for any scraps of information about his
> embattled country.
>
> "If you have somebody in the line of fire, how
> productive can you be?" said Semaan, who studies a
> specialized engineering field called experimental
> turbulence.
>
> Semaan's parents and his older brother last week
> fled the Beirut suburbs for the mountains after food
> and water became scarce and a bomb exploded nearby.
> They're betting Israel won't target the rural,
> Christian area, he said.
>
>
>
>
> "Something must go terribly, terribly wrong to be
> hit there," Semaan said.
>
> Contact with his mother, a retired teacher, and his
> father, a retired accountant, has been spotty since
> the move. He said Israeli forces have attacked
> communication towers, and the family's rented
> apartment has no telephone service.
>
> However, Semaan regularly discusses the war with
> friends in Lebanon who say they feel helpless
> against the bombardment. Semaan struggles with
> conflicting emotions as he watches coverage of
> Israeli warplanes pummeling his country.
>
> "I can't tell you I wish I was there -- I'll be in
> the line of danger," Semaan said. "But at the same
> time, for some reason I'm wishing I was there."
>
> Semaan is no stranger to war. He's too young to
> remember the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, but
> his family suffered major losses in the subsequent
> civil wars that made Beirut a poster child for
> Middle East violence in the 1990s.
>
> "Our house got totally destroyed in that war,"
> Semaan said. "It was burned to the ground, and we
> virtually lost everything there, and we had to
> rebuild.
>
> "From that experience, I can relate to what's
> happening now. It's a big tragedy."
>
> Semaan was vacationing in Lebanon a day before
> Hezbollah guerillas kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.
> Within hours, Israeli forces unleashed a nearly
> relentless assault on Lebanon that has killed
> roughly 400 Lebanese, most of them civilians, and
> displaced more than 500,000, according to wire
> reports. Hezbollah continues to shell parts of
> northern Israel in retaliation.
>
> Semaan said Hezbollah made a strategic mistake by
> snatching the soldiers, and now the Lebanese people
> are being "collectively punished" for its actions.
> The proof, he said, is the targets Israel is
> choosing.
>
> "Some of the targets are unexplainable," he said.
> "They're hitting lighthouses, wheat silos, farms,
> factories. What does that have to do with
> Hezbollah?"
>
> Israel, meanwhile, says Hezbollah fighters use
> civilian areas to conceal their arsenal of missiles
> and take human shields.
>
> What's more demoralizing, Semaan said, is that
> Lebanon had been undergoing massive rebuilding since
> the end of the civil war in 2000 and was expecting a
> strong tourist season.
>
> "We just want to be in peace, and Lebanon has paid a
> really, really heavy price for the conflicts in the
> region," he said.
>
> Semaan also is saddened by the U.S. government's
> position on the war, which is to allow the Israeli
> bombardment to continue until Hezbollah is crippled.
> President Bush has declined to call for an end to
> the bombing.
>
> "What I learned when I arrived here is you have to
> make a difference between U.S. foreign policy and
> the American people," Semaan said. "But it's
> apparent that the United States has always backed
> Israel in all its wars and all its conflicts with
> its neighbors."
>
> Semaan said many Lebanese, including himself, would
> like to see Hezbollah disarmed and a lasting peace
> in the region. But he predicts the destruction will
> deepen sympathy for the radical Islamic group, and
> could embolden a new generation of guerilla
> fighters.
>
> The Bush administration views Hezbollah as a
> terrorist group, but many Lebanese see it as an army
> of "freedom fighters" credited with ending the
> Israeli occupation, Semaan said.
>
> The violence "will only increase radicalism," he
> said. "What's happening is despite a lot of people
> in Lebanon not wanting Hezbollah to remain armed,
> now people are having sympathy for them because
> basically if you're looking at your country being
> destroyed, you don't care who's hitting back."
>
> Over the next few days, Semaan knows he must return
> to his studies, but he fears a humanitarian crisis
> and worries that his country won't have the means to
> rebuild again.
>
> "There is nothing left standing," Semaan said. "I
> can see the only way for us coming back is with
> international help."
>
> Semaan believes an end to the immediate violence
> will require work by the United States and all the
> regional players.
>
> He is less optimistic about the chances for
> sustained peace in Lebanon and the Middle East.
>
> "I don't see it now," he said, shaking his head. "I
> don't see it now."
>
> Reach reporter Jared Miller at (307) 632-1244 or at
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Kendall Corbett
> Coordinator of Consumer Activities
> Wyoming INstitute for Disabilities - WIND
> College of Health Sciences
> University of Wyoming
> 1000 E. University Avenue, Dept. 4298
> Laramie, WY 82070
> (307) 766-2853
> [log in to unmask]
> www.wind.uwyo.edu
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kendall David Corbett
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 1:27 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [C-PALSY] Disability Rights (now
> mideast crisis?)
>
> If I remember correctly, the present Israeli/Hamas
> conflict started when
> Israel attacked Lebanon after the kidnapping of an
> Israeli soldier.
> Soldiers go into the service knowing that they'll be
> in harm's way.
> Poorly targeted mortar attacks don't seem to be an
> appropriate response
>
=== message truncated ===
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