Latest targets of air blitz: milk and medicine

[spindrifter]

By Lysandra Ohrstrom
Daily Star staff
Wednesday, July 19, 2006


BEIRUT: Israel switched gears in its military campaign against Lebanon Monday and Tuesday, launching a series of debilitating air strikes against privately owned factories throughout the country and dealing a devastating blow to an economy already paralyzed by a week of hits on residential areas and crucial infrastructure.

The production facilities of at least five companies in key industrial sectors - including the country's largest dairy farm, Liban Lait; a paper mill; a packaging firm and a pharmaceutical plant - have been disabled or completely destroyed. Industry insiders say the losses will cripple the economy for decades to come.

"I think the picture will be much worse than we can possible imagine when the whole thing ends, but the direct damage from yesterday's attacks to the industrial sector alone will take years to recover from," said Wajid al-Bisri, the vice-president of the Lebanese Association of Industrialists (LAI).

<snip>

"There is nothing strategic about these targets, we need the industrial sector to rebuild this country," (Former Lebanese Association of Industrialists president) Jacques Sarraf said.

<snip>

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=74078

[Junkdrawer]

1. But, but Israel has never said they want a Muslim nation destroyed...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1668167&mesg_id=1668167

[FairVotes4all]

2. Should I say that Israel shouldn't bomb Industry with no ties to Hezbollah

or would that be anti-semitic? I honestly think that Israel has a right to protect itself, but to destroy dairies? I honestly dont see lactose-based weaponry being a concern in the future.

[Igel]

11. They shouldn't.

Not anti-Semitic.

I have don't know if they bombed plants/factories with no ties to Hezbollah; I suspect they did, but I can easily imagine a legitimate reason or two for bombing them--legitimate reasons aren't that difficult to come up with. But I see no evidence for any of the to be true; in this case I also see no reason for the assertion that they weren't targets to be true.

[blonndee]

3. Kicked up! SHAME ON YOU ISRAEL.

I was giving them the benefit of the doubt to some extent, but no longer. This is deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure. They are going to cripple Lebanon and ruin its chances at sustaining a democracy.

[Junkdrawer]

5. That would appear to be the goal: A perpetually failed state....

..and the occasional terror attack coming from said failed state only helps to keep Likud in power.

[DELUSIONAL]

4. "israel has a right to protect herself" -- now that that is said

What motive is there to punish all Lebanon??

All I can think of that this is an old blood feud that will go on and on and on and on. That civilians get in the way -- that children will get sick and die -- so what? They don't count.

Or is Lebanon supposed to be another Gaza or West Bank -- where the people are kept in primitive conditions and the unemployed rate is something like 75+%.

I'm just trying to figure out the reasoning behind this assault on the civilian infrastructure.

Is a healthy vibrant economy a threat (and thus Israel needs to protect herself)?

Just trying to understand the logic involved in a blood feud.

[Junkdrawer]

6. K&R

[jonnyblitz]

7. no comment necessary..

it's obvious to those with a clue..

:puke:

[JackNewtown]

8. Israel has a right to defend itself

Milk, facial tissue, etc. are a clear and present danger to the very survival of Israel. I am concerned about Israel's weak response to the use of tea. It must take a stronger stand against tea, a critical part of the infrastructure of terrorism.

[blonndee]

9. LOL very nice

Attack the terrorist teabags! Nuke em! Boil them in hot water!

[snappyturtle]

10. I wonder if.......

Hezbollah (sp?) is hiding in a milk processing plant? Maybe we should e-mail Powell and see if he has any pictures to clarify the situation! I hope our troops in Irag and Afghanistan are REALLY watching their backs now, every minute of every day because surely, they are even more unsafe. Insanity reigns!

[Igel]

12. Snarky, but that doesn't mean it's not a possibility.

They claim to have 12k missiles of various sizes, some of which require mobile launch trailers, some of which require rather more significant trailers or equipment. They have small outposts, but nothing large. They also have actual armed forces, and presumably fairly large quantities of non-aerial munitions.

Where do they put them? Goats?

In addition, they have what's even more dangerous: they do significant outreach, merging a doctrine of Islamic supremacy and religious hatred with feeding the poor and other social work, all the while parading as Islam's or the ummah's protector. They harvest considerable zakat (required Muslim charitable donations) from abroad for this purpose. The money doesn't go just to buy food, but to establish production facilities. The profits go back into more facilities, to additional social work, and to munitions. They've formed an Islam-based tribe, and act as a tribe. Nasrallah is the tribal chieftain.

Destroy a tribe's soldiers, and you get more soldiers. Destroy their income and resupply sources, and you disable them for a while. Long term ... nobody, even the Israelis, has the balls to deal with the underlying problem: What unifies and motivates the tribe.

[snappyturtle]

13. I see your point however,.....

I guess my maternal instincts are seething! I would think the Israeli intelligence forces would have infiltrated Hezballah. Oh, silly me....I thought that about our intelligence communities and the WMD thing. So, consequently, innocent human beings become targets by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Such is life! Do you think my anger harbors a wee bit of sarcasm?