Israel's Brutal Attack On Palestinians Shocked U.S. Military Officials

[Fred Sanders]

http://crooksandliars.com/2014/08/israels-brutal-attacks-palestinians

"Holy bejeezus!"

......................

There was a lot of right-wing ridicule of John Kerry's hot mic remarks on Fox News Sunday in the middle of Israel's attempt to flatten the Gaza strip, but it turns out that his anger over what Bibi did there was shared by some top US military brass, too, who had some choice words for it.

Al Jazeera America:

Kerry’s hot-microphone comments reflect the shock among U.S. observers at the scale and lethality of the Israeli bombardment.

“Eleven battalions of IDF artillery is equivalent to the artillery we deploy to support two divisions of U.S. infantry,” a senior Pentagon officer with access to the daily briefings said. “That’s a massive amount of firepower, and it’s absolutely deadly.” Another officer, a retired artillery commander who served in Iraq, said the Pentagon’s assessment might well have underestimated the firepower the IDF brought to bear on Shujaiya. “This is the equivalent of the artillery we deploy to support a full corps,” he said. “It’s just a huge number of weapons.”

[...]

“Holy bejeezus,” exclaimed retired Lt. Gen. Robert Gard when told the numbers of artillery pieces and rounds fired during the July 21 action. “That rate of fire over that period of time is astonishing. If the figures are even half right, Israel’s response was absolutely disproportionate.” A West Point graduate who is a veteran of two wars and is the chairman of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington, D.C., he added that even if Israeli artillery units fired guided munitions, it would have made little difference.

.....................

"Never again" meant never again for anyone.