Hence, like I said, when one thinks most of everyone is a Hamas operative, one feels justified to level the entire “country”. It is not about that one building, obviously.
You talk about a false perception of every person as Hamas. I understood that part. And then you also said it "justifies leveling an entire country" which references combat engineering clearing work.
These are two entirely separate topics. Can you explain how the two are connected?
Regardless of incrimination, combat engineer forces across the world generally share the same tasks and greatly overlap in methods.
There also seems to be no evidence of your alleged threat perception. But overwhelming evidence against it. Which makes it weirder.
Are you aware of how incrimination works? And are how aware of the tasks of combat engineers?
Investigations generally don’t matter when one investigates oneself, regardless of who the “one” is.
Are you aware that armed forces and law enforcement, particularly in democracies, have self investigative mechanisms?
I'm certain that sometimes they don't work properly. What alternative are you proposing?
Yes, armed forces should absolutely be accountable for their conduct. And not just “generally”, but always. However, I am also a realist and don’t believe that a) one can investigate oneself during times of war in particular, b) one has credibility when one feels their actions are justified, which is always the case (while others consider such actions to not only be outrageous, but also war crimes), and c) one can meaningfully investigate oneself committing crimes against the party they are warring against. I believe this is clear as day to rational people. Are you OK with Russia investigating itself for what they have done and doing in Ukraine? Serbs? Palestine? Germany? US in their wars? Japan? Pretty much anyone else? Is Israel any different? If yes, then why? To stress right away before it gets into a talking point, all wars are different and initiated for different reasons. This is not the argument here and the initial aggressor has no relevance in this discussion.
I think this is the correct way, yes. There should be a self investigative body.
I also do not think Russia has one that's functioning properly. But these are two very separate things.
This is exactly what I am talking about. Moreover, like you said in one of your previous post that Feanor questioned, Palestinians (as you referred to the civilians in Gaza City) are refusing to leave, so the IDF conducts deterring strikes to reduce living space. To think that this is ok and normal is rather ridiculous. But this is a clear strategy of Israel and has been so for a very long time. The immediate goal is quite clear: make living conditions from unbearable to nonexistent so most people leave and then level the entire area.
There can be more than one reason for everything. Regardless of whether civilians evacuate and at what tempo, these towers would have to be gone anyway to deny Hamas conventional tactical advantages.
But at that specific point in time, the IDF's biggest problem was getting civilians to evacuate, so I commented on my personal opinion of the effects related to that specific problem.
The IDF, as is usual for many conflicts, puts off striking escalatory targets to maintain a viable escalation path. But now that the Gaza City campaign has begun, high rise buildings should be the first thing to go.
You seem to misunderstand the point of "leveling an area". When the IDF sets up corridors across Gaza, then it has to level areas to create an observable perimeter to reduce risk of movement.
But in any place other than a corridor, demolitions are necessary to disarm buildings. Almost every building there is boobytrapped, contains a tunnel shaft, or something else military, and it's demolished in a controlled manner.
But not all are used by Hamas, so in cleared areas we can spot quite a few standing buildings.
We also know the IDF scans every building for civilians, hostages, comabatants, and any hidden elements. That is why the operational tempo is slow. If it was all about flattening, it'd happen much more quickly.
People in Gaza City are threatened by Hamas to stay. As shown here previously, they've been known to murder civilians who try to leave or go to aid sites not controlled by them.
But the IDF cannot enter the city without evacuating it, otherwise civilians would get caught in the crossfire.
So setting up reinforced aid elsewhere, tents, water, better living conditions, and ending aid supplies to Gaza City - yes it lowers the quality of life in Gaza City, but it is a necessary measure.
However if you are familiar with another strategy that can achieve the same results, I'd be happy to hear.
As you can see, demolitions and clearing of civilians are two separate topics.
would argue that every single state or individual committing war crimes considers themselves to be righteous and their actions to be justified. For everyone else to simply accept their point of view would be ludicrous. Which is why we have international organizations thot deal with these matters when stars align (often enough they don’t due to competing interest of the most powerful ones in this world).
I'm familiar with numerous war crimes posted on social media to boast. Last time I checked with a mil journalist, they were court martialled. So the system works, at least to an extent. It also certainly helps that the IDF's self investigative body is uniformed but otherwise entirely subordinate to the civil supreme court, which is defined as overseer of the executive branch.
MAG's FFAM body and its investigators have a legal mandate to investigate every personnel they choose, regardless of said person's chain of command.
That is quite a robust system.
would also argue that the cost is tremendous instead of low, as you insist. I don’t think Israel will ever recover from this and I think the worst of what they are going to do is still ahead.
I was clearly referencing cost to human lives.
www.timesofisrael.com
abcnews.go.com
www.lemonde.fr
