Friday, October 20, 2006

Cluster bombs and the Geneva Convention

Human Rights Watch recently disclosed that Hezbollah used cluster bomb warheads as they launched rockets at noncombatants in Israel.

They have been yammering for quite a while about how awful it was that Israel had used cluster bombs against Hezbollah. They have it wrong. The evil thing is targeting non-combatants, not the use, or misuse of cluster bombs.


Here are the facts.
Cluster muntions are the right weapon to use against light mobile truck mounted enemy forces launching soft skinned rockets, in the close proximity to noncombatants.

If the non-combatants (many civilians are not "innocent") are in the area, they would hide in cellars and basements. There they would be safe from cluster bombs, but not safe from heavy iron bombs, which would smash through the buildings, and kill everyone in the building, as they did with Zarqawi in Iraq.

A key difference is when Israel sends cluster bombs, it is, I understand, because the Hezbollah rocket launchers, and rocket launcher teams are there. The Hezbollah clusterbombs are not launched at Israeli military forces, but rather, intended to do random murder of Israeli civilians. The same weapon can thus be used legally, or illegally, depending on who you aim it at. Like any other weapon. As I recall, some 12 Israeli reservists coming up from the south did not take cover in a civilian bomb shelter, and were killed by one rocket attack. Their unfortunate deaths were perhaps the only Israeli deaths IN ISRAEL that were not war crimes by Hezbollah.

Although it is true that clusterbombs have a high "dud" rate, it would be the choice of noncombatants to remain in the area after the bombing stopped. Unless, of course, the noncombatants were forced to remain in the area by the terrorists. In which case, the noncombatants casualties would be the fault of the terrorists.

Historical note: The cluster bombs were first used in Vietnam, to attack soft skinned anti-aircraft gun and missile sites in North Vietnam. These gun and missile sites were located on top of irrigation and flood prevention dikes. Jane Fonda went to North Vietnam in an attempt to give credance to the Communist assertion that bombing these "non-combatant" structures were war crimes on the part of the US. Of course when she had her picture taken while shooting at US aircraft, it showed that the North Vietnamese had placed military forces right on top of their so called "non-combatant" structures, thus removing them from any protected status.

Cluster bombs made little pops, and hence didn't do much damage to the dikes. Napalm was also used there for the same reason. By contrast, 500 pound bombs would tear up the dikes, and permit flooding.

It may seem that the rules are stacked against Hezbollah. They have no aircraft, and hence can not fight Israel legally on anything like even terms. That is a feature of the Geneva Convention. The Geneva Convention sets rules for combat that disadvantage legal combatants, compared to civilians. To protect non-combatants, legal combatants wear uniforms, which mark them as targets. Hezbollah does not. Part of the point of the Geneva Convention is that war should be eventually stopped. People who continue a fight long after they have lost, by disregarding the rules, hiding among noncombatants, hiding inside religious facilities, or in civilian hospitals, are not intended to have their likelihood of victory increased by such actions, but rather, inflict suffering upon "their" non-combatants. Legal combatants are protected if they are defeated and if they surrender. Illegal combatants forfeit those protections.

It would be better for Hezbollah to accept a loss, than to fight on as illegal combatants. Israel has only once used the death penalty, for Adolf Eichmann. Rather than contribute to the murder of noncombatants by illegal acts, the moral thing for Hezbollah, or any fighter would be to surrender to a foe which follows the Geneva Conventions. Since Hezbollah, Hamas, and Al Queda do not follow the Geneva Convention, do not provide prisoners with protection, and in fact murder their prisoners, seeking to humiliate them (again contrary to the Geneva Convention) there is nothing that ANY NATION can do except fight to the last breath against such a heinous foe.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

The Power of Positive Thinking

http://www.lyricsdepot.com/simon-and-garfunkel/richard-cory.html

In a casual conversation at work, song "Richard Cory" came up. The Simon and Garfunkel song was derived from an Richard Cory" poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson. I think I like the song better. Art Garfunkel has a wonderful voice, but his own writings never seemed to be as lyrical as his combinations with Paul Simon.

There are two lessons from the song/poem, at least...
First, you never know very much about the inner life of another person, so should hesitate to feel envy, or pride.
Second, the material things in life may not (often cannot) bring happiness.

I made the mistake once at work of sharing my inner (sad) self to my coworkers. All I got from it is ostracized. Noone wanted to be around a morose, and unproductive person. I eventually got a rehabilitative transfer, with the knowledge that if that didn't work, I would be laid off.

The good news is, I learned. My next position I tried to keep a positive outlook, and if I couldn't, I faked it, out of kindness to my coworkers. I even became somewhat useful, and perhaps a little popular. This fairly happy work environment continued even though my homelife disintegrated.

The work environment did not cause the home life to disintegrate, but rather "internal contraditions" of my relationship with my then-wife could no longer be painted over. At least while this happened, I had the security of a good job, was able to help my then-wife through medical school, and was still able to continue to support my children. I could even affort plane trips from California to Texas to visit them. Eventually I was able to get a job in Texas that was closer to them.

All those good things were the direct result of keeping a positive attitude. Let those with ears, let them hear.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Snakes on the Plain!

The next door neighbor has a mouse problem, so he got some sticky traps. The traps are moderately successful at catching mice, but very successfull at catching snakes.

To date, we have gotten 3 gopher snakes, all apparently from the same clutch.

Diamond was first.
Amythest was second.
NO-NAME is third. NO-NAME perhaps is big enough that we can release her. The other two are in a terrarium, and get fed once a week or so with infant mice ("pinkies"). So far Diamond has been much more interested in eating, and Amythest has to constantly have the small mice hung in her face. Diamond has a second name of "Miss Piggie" after she beat Amythest twice to both pinkies.

Crystal has a web page. Oddly, people get offended that we feed the rescued snakes with live mice. I wonder what they would eat otherwise. We also tried a grasshopper, caught in our back yard, but the snakes don't seem interested.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Pater's place

Eugenics is a combination of mercantilism and darwinism.

After we got a bit smarter, we figured out that the government can't pick winning businesses, and correspondingly, cant pick winning characteristics. Not that people in government aren't well meaning or smart, just that when you assemble well meaning and smart people in a bureaucracy/heirarchy, they are not allowed to express their genius, or their preferences, rather they are bound by rules written for one situation, and applied in another situation. That is why bureaucracies ALWAYS seem to act stupidly.

Having said that, individuals and capitalists can pick winning stocks and horses. We all practice Eugenics when we pick our spouse with a view to having children that have qualities that we find attractive in our spouse!

It is the thousands of different choices we all make that create a diverse background, and then the diverse background is selected (in a horse race).

The Eugenicist would substitute expert opinion for the horse race. If that was to happen in the horse breeding business, you would get beautiful horses, but not necessarily fast horses. In the horse breeding industry the modern Nazis are represented by the breeders of Arab horses which are beautiful, but are not in the first rank of speed. The royalists are, oddly enough, represented by the breeders of Morgan horses, who demand that all real Morgan horses be desended from Justin Morgan's horse.

The capitalists are represented by the Standard Bred. You run, you demonstrate you meet the standard, and your horse is "standard bred".

In business, Mercantilists try to meet approval of "experts" include process oriented people try to get Deming Awards, or Baldridge Awards. Nice, but the real Capitalists seek the rewards of the market place. Toyota and Nissan spend millions of dollars in their effort to win the Deming Award. Honda: decided that the right answer was to win in the market. Honda does just fine in the market!

The ISO 9000 folks are analogous to the 'Standard bred', setting up minimum standards for quality, that nearly everyone can meet. All ISO 9000 companies, like all standard bred horses will be competitive.

Pater's place

Eugenics is a combination of mercantilism and darwinism.

After we got a bit smarter, we figured out that the government can't pick winning businesses, and correspondingly, cant pick winning characteristics. Not that people in government aren't well meaning or smart, just that when you assemble well meaning and smart people in a bureaucracy/heirarchy, they are not allowed to express their genius, or their preferences, rather they are bound by rules written for one situation, and applied in another situation. That is why bureaucracies ALWAYS seem to act stupidly.

Having said that, individuals and capitalists can pick winning stocks and horses. We all practice Eugenics when we pick our spouse with a view to having children that have qualities that we find attractive in our spouse!

It is the thousands of different choices we all make that create a diverse background, and then the diverse background is selected (in a horse race).

The Eugenicist would substitute expert opinion for the horse race. If that was to happen in the horse breeding business, you would get beautiful horses, but not necessarily fast horses. In the horse breeding industry the modern Nazis are represented by the breeders of Arab horses which are beautiful, but are not in the first rank of speed. The royalists are, oddly enough, represented by the breeders of Morgan horses, who demand that all real Morgan horses be desended from Justin Morgan's horse.

The capitalists are represented by the Standard Bred. You run, you demonstrate you meet the standard, and your horse is "standard bred".

In business, Mercantilists try to meet approval of "experts" include process oriented people try to get Deming Awards, or Baldridge Awards. Nice, but the real Capitalists seek the rewards of the market place. Toyota and Nissan spend millions of dollars in their effort to win the Deming Award. Honda: decided that the right answer was to win in the market. Honda does just fine in the market!

The ISO 9000 folks are analogous to the 'Standard bred', setting up minimum standards for quality, that nearly everyone can meet. All ISO 9000 companies, like all standard bred horses will be competitive.