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Hezbollah hand-held radios detonate across Lebanon, sources say

reuters.com

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Re: Hezbollah hand-held radios detonate across Lebanon, sources say

#901

Post by raxxorraxor »

Arch485 wrote: post #192

I'm genuinely curious: how is this not considered terrorism on Israel's part? (or is it considered terrorism?) From a tactical standpoint, this is very similar, and the only big difference I see is that this is technologically more advanced/more complex than just planting a bomb or something. If it's not terrorism, what is the differentiating factor(s)? *side note: I'm quite sure other western countries have used tac…

Hezbollah is a militia, I think the goal of terrorism is to scare a civil population. Of course one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter. But I would have problems to call Hezbollah anything of that sort.

Hezbollahs goal is to destroy Israel, so I wouldn't call any military action against them terrorism. They have a right to defend themselves and that right does include these tactics.

Re: Hezbollah hand-held radios detonate across Lebanon, sources say

#902

Post by raxxorraxor »

113 wrote: post #526
pdabbadabba wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it should not be considered terrorism to the extent that the attack targeted legitimate military targets during a time of war — broadly speaking, combatants and other parts of the organization that affect its ability to wage war. Terrorism, at least least in my view, is an attack that either intentionally targets civilians or is truly indiscriminate, and is aimed at producing political cha age by causing fear…

> legitimate military targets during a time of war Israel and Lebanon are not at war.

Hezbollah doesn't speak for all of Lebanon but it certainly is at war with Israel. Permanently for that matter because it exists to attack Israel.

Re: Hezbollah hand-held radios detonate across Lebanon, sources say

#903

Post by pvaldes »

loeg wrote: post #565
wut42 wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No! >Customary international humanitarian law prohibits the use of booby traps – objects that civilians are likely to be attracted to or are associated with normal civilian daily use – precisely to avoid putting civilians at grave risk and produce the devastating scenes that continue to unfold across Lebanon today. The use of an explosive device whose exact location could not be reliably known would be unlawfully ind…

These are not booby traps.

"Arguing over minutia to dilute and divest the focus from the main discourse" pattern detected again in this thread.

Re: Hezbollah hand-held radios detonate across Lebanon, sources say

#904

Post by raxxorraxor »

numpad0 wrote: post #486
stetrain wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The definition of terrorism is controversial and political, so there isn't a hard answer. But I think a general distinction is the targeting of combatants vs civilians. There is a difference between infiltrating military or para-military organizations or operations and intentionally targeting mass casualties of civilians for attention.

The entire US is going to freak out if a platoon of KGB soldiers flew into US and killed hundreds of bad guys. How objectively bad the "victims" might have been isn't going to matter. You can't just walk across a recognized international border and do the "right" thing without a consent, regardless of how right or wrong it had been. That's an act of war, technically.

Hezbollah does specifically exist to attack Israel. Of course that does matter, even if I ignore them firing rockets constantly.

They could decide to build up their country and Israel wouldn't interfere.

Re: Hezbollah hand-held radios detonate across Lebanon, sources say

#905

Post by minkles »

dang wrote: post #885
minkles wrote: post #345

[flagged]

You started a hellish flamewar with this, even by the standards of this pretty hellish thread. Please don't do that again. Religious flamewar in particular will get you banned here, regardless of which religion you have a problem with. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41581653 .

I certainly didn't intend it turn it into a flamewar. Posting the link was poor judgement on my part. My intent was to outline a particular branch of ideology, not a whole religion.

Re: Hezbollah hand-held radios detonate across Lebanon, sources say

#906

Post by raxxorraxor »

ivan_gammel wrote: post #151
mmastrac wrote: post #116

I guess they are taking a victory lap around yesterday's major embarrassment. I never thought that you could dismantle a terrorist organization so surgically by just booby-trapping comms devices. This will certainly be made into a blockbuster movie in ten years. I'll re-iterate my previous comment on this matter: this is an impressive supply-chain hack with absolutely oversized results, and you gotta hand it to them…

It doesn’t look very surgical to me given the civilian casualties and general disregard of what can happen to innocent people. If anything this looks more like a state-sponsored terrorist attack than covert ops with collateral damage.

Do you have an example of a weapon of war that is more surgical? I think this is the typical Israel criticism that is devoid of any realistic basic to be honest.

Re: Hezbollah hand-held radios detonate across Lebanon, sources say

#907

Post by raxxorraxor »

anigbrowl wrote: post #724
ineedasername wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actual combat and conventional attacks on a guerilla force embedded in an urban civilian population is far more catastrophic and less surgical than the risk of being inside the ~0.5m lethal radius of these pagers. It's a horrific attack with awful innocent deaths at the same time that any conventional attack that achieved the same impact on Hezbollah would have been even worse for those around them.

I'm not so sure. It certainly shook Hezbollah and no doubt some of the dead or seriously injured held sufficiently important jobs within the organization to cause problems. On the other hand you now have a few thousand people who suffered unpleasant but not debilitating injuries who are now sadder, wiser, and very very pissed off. My impression is that many of those attacked could have been middle managers or mid-ran…

Hezbollah does exist to attack Israel, why would it matter that they are "pissed off"?

It is a militia. Sure, they also now formed a political party, but that doesn't really hide what their goals are.

Re: Hezbollah hand-held radios detonate across Lebanon, sources say

#908

Post by ivan_gammel »

raxxorraxor wrote: post #906
ivan_gammel wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn’t look very surgical to me given the civilian casualties and general disregard of what can happen to innocent people. If anything this looks more like a state-sponsored terrorist attack than covert ops with collateral damage.

Do you have an example of a weapon of war that is more surgical? I think this is the typical Israel criticism that is devoid of any realistic basic to be honest.

Please spend some time reading this whole thread to understand better my arguments. Your question is based on flawed logic and does not require an answer in context of what’s going on.

Re: Hezbollah hand-held radios detonate across Lebanon, sources say

#909

Post by raxxorraxor »

realo wrote: post #40
technics256 wrote: post #13

A second day! I can't believe the full up and down owning of the communications supply chain. Makes Hezbollah look like a clown show.

Thousands of civilians injured... very few Hezbollah dead. Makes Israel look like a terrorist organization, IMHO.

I doubt you would have been happy either way, but I think your statements about the injuries is also unsubstantiated.

Re: Hezbollah hand-held radios detonate across Lebanon, sources say

#910

Post by lr1970 »

Several thousands of "modified" portable communication devices were distributed in Lebanon about half a year ago. I am curios how many of those explosive gadgets the unsuspecting owners were bringing to the airplanes through airport security without explosives being detected? Another proof that the airport security is a theater (at least in the Middle East).
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