I wonder if the coverage of these pager attacks would be quite so complimentary on their ingenuity if it struck targets in Europe, with >25% civilian collateral, including aid-workers, children and members of neighbouring countries.
this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
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>25% civilian collateral
Is there a source on this? The initial coverage made it sound like it was maybe 10%.
Are you counting injuries or just deaths?
As of 22 September 2024, the death toll from the attacks was 42, including at least 12 civilian deaths. More than 3,500 people were injured.
At least 12 people were killed in the first wave of attacks, including civilians such as two health workers, a 9-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy. The adult son of Ali Ammar, a Hezbollah member of Parliament was killed; Prime Minister Najib Mikati visited southern Beirut to pay his respects. More than 2,750 people were wounded. In the second wave on 18 September, at least 30 people were killed and 750 others were injured. One eye doctor at Mount Lebanon University Hospital reported that a number of those injured showed signs of something being blown up directly in their face, with some losing one or both eyes, while others had shrapnel in their brains. The Lebanese health ministry reported that 300 people had lost both eyes and 500 people had lost one eye as a result of the pager attacks. Other doctors saw severe hand, waist and facial injuries, reporting patients with fingers torn, hands amputated, eyes popped out of the socket and facial lacerations.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Lebanon_pager_explosions
Probably not. No one credits Al-Qaeda's ingenuity with using planes as ad-hoc cruise missiles.
Bulky pager is a fun way to spin terrorism. Let me try.
How Al Qaeda's surprise itinerary shocked New Yorkers
I don't know if this can considered terrorism, the same way I don't consider car bombs driven into coalition FOBs in Iraq or Afghanistan, or roadside IEDs and VBIDs that killed soldier on patrol, as terrorism.
If you're targeting military personnel, it's not terrorism. But, if you're doing it in a way that unnecessarily causes collateral damage, too much collateral damage, etc., that's a war crime. Which I believe this was.
I can understand the argument that considers this terrorism, and I'm not putting down this flag saying that my understanding of it is right and yours is wrong. Just explaining my current view of the situation.
But at this point, I'm not sure it makes any difference. Israeli troops, and settlers, are regularly committing unquestionable acts of terrorism and war crimes on a daily basis, so what difference does it make classifying this one incident as terrorism, or just another war crime.
And I can pull out a dozen other US military and CIA officials, current and present, who would say differently.
Would their status as current, or former, as cogs in the wheels of the US military and intelligence branches, make them credible as well?
They would not be ctedible in their reading of a calendar.
It is textbook terrorism. Imagine being in the supermarket shopping for produce when suddenly the person standing next to you has their legs blown off... Would "terror" be a good description of how that would likely make someone feel?
It's just state-sponsored, which is why it was more sophisticated than what we're used to seeing from non-state actors. Which makes it even worse.
Terrorism is more about the intent rather than the result. Did Israel intend to instill terror in the civilian population or did they genuinely try to target Hezbollah militants (and perhaps didn't care much about any civilian casualties)?
Did Israel intend to instill terror in the civilian population
Yes. Absolutely yes. And the terror attack with pagers was just one part of the larger, ongoing terrorism.
If the goal was military casualties, they'd have been better served by having Hezbollah mobilize its insurgents, by maybe massing on the borders in a very obvious show of force, then firing off the pagers once the militants were grouped and away from civilian populations.
But then they'd be on the back foot because the survivors would be already massed and coordinating in person, which would hamper their actual invasion.
Duh, yes they did. They admitted that much, try harder.
More like sophisticated terrorist attack tools used