Human Shields, and Proud of it!

What could we have been thinking? Pointing a finger of shame at Hezbollah, at Hamas, for their nasty proclivities in exposing civilians to harm by installing themselves among dense civilian populations, the better to launch rockets at Israel? Why did the West think that this manouevre, the use of which had several obvious purposes, was a matter of shame to Muslim Arabs? Did we consider the practicality of so doing to the Islamist terrorists?

That they would benefit from sheltering themselves among crowds of civilians to avoid detection? That should their presence be known to the enemy, the crowded civilian environs would ensure they would not draw fire? That they could and most certainly would benefit from firing off rockets with the intent of drawing retaliatory fire from those they attack, so they could demonstrate to the waiting world how monstrous the Israelis are for hitting civilians? This is quite the technique, and it has been brought to perfection by Muslim terrorists.

Of course these are not the only perfidious tricks in their arsenal of terrorist warfare. These terrorists also co-opt the use of ambulances for discreet cover, to convey munitions and Islamists, and then to cry foul to the world when their ruse is discovered and they're bombed. Failing the bombing, they haven't been averse to claiming to have been bombed presenting fabricated evidence, and that always gets world opinion boiling.

Now that we're thinking of the various ways in which convention has been turned on its head, decency buried deep in the sands of Arabia, how about that old standby of a white flag signifying surrender, peace, cease-fire, a search for safety? That white flag too, to deter enemy fire, has been use to great avail by Hezbollah terrorists, and most successfully; they're drunk with the ecstasy of their success.

Things have become a little clearer now. They've gone from denying their use of human shields to overtly and loudly demanding their human shields do their duty to the larger good of the community of terror. Now a call for civilian shields can be launched from rooftops for all to hear, from mosques for the faithful to assemble and arrange themselves as soft targets for incoming missiles.

Of course, they do know their enemy. They do very well know that Israeli soldiers somehow don't fancy targeting and hitting civilians, men, women or children. That in the face of what the Palestinian community considers to be defiance against the oppressor, the community becomes complicit in the outrageous acts of barbarism by the terrorists among them.

Those same groups of innocent civilians protecting their heroes who consider the lives of Israeli civilians fodder for their campaign of terror, could, should they so wish, inform the terrorists among them that their behaviour is unacceptable to civilized communities. But they do not. They agree to the declarations, terms and conditions that the terrorists among them place on their compliance.

These champions of Palestinian justice who are so eager to claim as many innocent civilian lives among Israelis as they possibly can are to be protected. Does that then render the civilians complicit in the deaths of Israeli citizens? Do they even think that far ahead?

And should they do so, do they care?