We live what these stories describe. We watch interviews with mayors and other political leaders on TV while, at the same time, resistance fighters/terrorists post videos of their operations. In fact, we are now able to view more up-front, in-your-face details of such conflicts than Poul Anderson's Freeholders or other Imperial citizens appear to.
While reading about the destruction of Domkirk, remember cities devastated now. Fiction is comfortable reading until it hits reality.
14 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I immediately thought of the Ukrainian cities the Russians are destroying with attacks deliberately targeting purely civilian targets, not military or militarily useful targets legitimately subject to attack by the laws of war.
Ad astra! Seam
Sean,
Not just Russians at present, surely?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, only the Russians at present.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But there is other urban destruction going on.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
If you mean the Gaza war that's because the only way to destroy the tunnels built by the Hamas scum under buildings and streets is by the IDF blowing them up, which means destroying those buildings. Which is a legitimate act of war.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I did not just mean Gaza. I do not agree that anyone involved there is "scum." Your attitude is very one-sided. Personally, I would not destroy hospitals etc in order to destroy tunnels under them especially since this approach does not succeed in ending the resistance in any case. Do people construct tunnels just because this particular group of people happen to be "scum" or because they are resisting a decades-long siege? How did the conflict begin? Some approaches merely perpetuate an entrenched conflict indefinitely.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Face it, the Hamas creatures are scum, because the perpetrators of the 10/7 atrocities deliberately sought to massacre, rape, torture, and kidnap as many Israelis as possible. To say nothing of how they roasted babies alive!
I don't care about the hospitals, not when Hamas also had tunnels under them, including command posts and storing weapons in them. That forfeits any neutral status they might have had. And the IDF did minimal damage to those hospitals.
What "resistance"? As a "military" force Hamas is broken, with its bosses being picked off in targeted assassinations by Israel. It's been reduced to using its last card, the surviving kidnap victims, trying to squeeze the best possible terms from Israel.
The war would have been over if that senile idiot, "Josip," had not been pressured by Democrat antisemites to "restrain" Israel!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
One-sided. I spoke out at a public meeting against the 10/7 atrocities - which were committed by resistance fighters breaking out of an open air prison, not by people who had been treated justly and fairly but had nevertheless unaccountably become "scum." I am not sure about the roasted babies reports but that is a factual question and certainly appalling if true.
You don't care about hospitals. Minimal damage? There has been a lot of far from minimal destruction.
The resistance continues in Gaza and the West Bank. The settlers are not having it all their own way. There are two sets of propaganda about what is happening.
Israel should be unrestrained? Israeli actions provoke fresh resistance. How long is this supposed to go on?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
One sided because true--the Hamas terrorists deserve nothing but a bullet to the back of the head! These creatures are not "resistant fighters," they are criminals who commit atrocities.
I don't care about the hospitals, because Israel took care not to destroy them despite the Hamas criminals using them.
Wrong, that "resistance" only continues because the thugs in Iran keeps pouring weapons weapons to the terrorists. You stubbornly persist in overlooking how Tehran keeps the war going in Gaza and dominates Lebanon thru its Hezbullah puppets.
The best thing for Israel to do about the West Bank would be to evacuate, seal it off absolutely from Israel and tell Jordan it would not object to Amman reoccupying it. Get rid of the corrupt PLO kleptocracy!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But the IDF supports the settlers in the West Bank. I am not being stubborn about Tehran: I haven't mentioned it yet! The US keeps the war going by arming Israel. This whole problem did not start with those Hamas atrocities. The atrocities were committed by people breaking out of an open air prison.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I disagree, the whole problem started with the fanatical unwillingness of the Arabs, as long ago as 1948, to accept any kind of compromise with the despised Jews. Starting with them rejecting a very favorable partition plan awarding two thirds of the old British Mandate to the "Palestinians." Israel got only the Tel Aviv/Jaffa coast and the Negev in this plan, a deal the founders of Israel accepted!
Those who claim to speak for the Palestinians chose war, hate, rejectionism, and paid for their folly. Tough on them!
And this conflict would be much more manageable if Iran was not so busy making trouble and stirring up wars!
I strongly suspect Iran has ambitions of conquering Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. A new Persian Empire!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Israel does not accept limited territory!
During a conflict in an oil-rich region, other governments interfere and supply weapons in their own interests: Iran and the US. The US would not be involved if there were no oil there. Israel serves US interests. Years ago, Biden said, "If there were not an Israel, we'd have to invent it." It is one-sided to treat Iran alone as the bogeyman.
"Those who claim to speak for the Palestinians..." include a lot of Palestinians who I think can speak for themselves. They are resisting, for example, Israel turning Gaza into an open air prison and occupying the West Bank.
Preserving the status quo means preserving entrenched conflicts but things change. We have seen Apartheid end and the Berlin Wall dismantled.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Disagree.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Disagree.
Paul.
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