Saturday, March 19, 2011

Inaccurate Reporting

In her report, Isabel Kershner writes:

The Hamas military wing said in a statement that it had fired 33 mortar shells, though the Israeli police put the number at closer to 50. And while Hamas said that it was firing at Israeli military bases along the border, mortar fire is notoriously inaccurate, and the Israeli side of the border is dotted with villages and communal farms.

Now, this assertion of "notoriously inaccurate" has been made regarding Qassam missiles. See here or here or here.

But from my experience as an infantry soldier, mortar fire is a lot less inaccurate than a Qassam missile. This line of excusing the Pals. is going too far.

In fact, it is inaccurate journalism and reporting.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mortar fire is not "notoriously" inaccurate; its accuracy depends on the quality of equipment and expertise of the shooter. Kershner would have been correct 110 years ago, but her statement hasn't been generically valid since about 1916. The range at which Hamas shoots would produce excellent accuracy with 1960s-vintage or newer equipment in the hands of a reasonably well trained firing team. Hamas may not field the best trained mortar teams around, but hitting civilian targets is not the result of using an uncontrollable form of weapon.

Note also that any weapon -- ANY weapon -- can be used indiscriminately. Mortar systems just happen to be cheap and widely available.

drone-ilellih said...

"We're trying to kill combatants but weapons arent perfect and civilians do get hit."

Funny ...Sad, actually... how that line never works for Israel...

And even that is an unfair parallel (!!); Hamas, (like Hezbollah) hide among civilians to maximize "collateral damage" & the anger and international outcry this brings!
It's a lose-lose for Israel, lose if you let a mass-murderer keep killing, lose if you inadvertently kill his family in process of his liquidation.

How odd that this line is swallowed by the international community when the Hamas charter & videos spell out their murderous intent against ALL JEWS! Hamas itself is clear in its absolute religious refusal to resolution by negotiation. This is the same Hamas that sent its minions to detonate themselves as they sat near young pregnant women on the morning bus! (claim 'inaccurate weaponry'!?!)

Anonymous said...

if they were firing at military targets, it was an act of war

if they were firing at civilian targets, it was an act of terrorism

either way...hamas lies...they have rearmed....time to go back into gaza and release all the people from the pain and suffering of being in the worlds largest open air prison

finish the job they refused to do during cast lead...goldstone be damned