Alert reader Harry Toor points us to some crazy comments from Post reporter Thomas Ricks while a guest on CNN’s “Reliable Sources”:
[Transcript] And joining us now here Washington Anne Compton who covers the White House for ABC News, and Thomas Ricks, Pentagon reporter for “The Washington Post” and author of the new book “Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq.“
Tom Ricks, you’ve covered a number of military conflicts, including Iraq, as I just mentioned. Is civilian casualties increasingly going to be a major media issue? In conflicts where you don’t have two standing armies shooting at each other?
THOMAS RICKS, REPORTER, “THE WASHINGTON POST”: I think it will be. But I think civilian casualties are also part of the battlefield play for both sides here. One of the things that is going on, according to some U.S. military analysts, is that Israel purposely has left pockets of Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon, because as long as they’re being rocketed, they can continue to have a sort of moral equivalency in their operations in Lebanon.
KURTZ: Hold on, you’re suggesting that Israel has deliberately allowed Hezbollah to retain some of it’s fire power, essentially for PR purposes, because having Israeli civilians killed helps them in the public relations war here?
RICKS: Yes, that’s what military analysts have told me.
KURTZ: That’s an extraordinary testament to the notion that having people on your own side killed actually works to your benefit in that nobody wants to see your own citizens killed but it works to your benefit in terms of the battle of perceptions here.
RICKS: Exactly. It helps you with the moral high ground problem, because you know your operations in Lebanon are going to be killing civilians as well.
What do you guys think? Is Ricks on to something? Or is he just nuts?
–David Axe
I don’t buy this conspiracy theory. The Israelis are looking impotent as the longer this thing drags on and Hezbollah continues to launch rockets into Israel. This is adding to the perception that Israel is losing the war. The Israeli military is doing its utmost to wipe out the launchers either before or after they fire off the rockets, but they can’t get them all.
I would not disagree that the continued rocket attacks do give Israel a bit of the “moral” high ground for continuing their attacks, however this is hardly a reason to keep the rockets standing. If Israel could seriously disable Hezbollah, they would have done so already and gotten the war over with.
It would have provided the convincing victory they need to maintain their regional military respect. While it makes for a great crackpot conspiracy, thinking that it’s realistic is bordering insane.
I would venture that the current “war” with Hez, is designed to give credence to, and justification for, a planned strike against Iran. Period.
They kidnap two soldiers? So we bomb them a little and they throw simple rockets at us.…..but we’re laying the groundwork for taking on the REAL threat…IRAN.
No? Remember the Maine, Luistania, and Tonkin Gulf
So there is a top secret conspiracy, so secret that no Israeli involved has leaked it, but yet still could be deduced by brilliant armchair generals, that essentially involves sacrificing innocent Israelis, in order to gain time to kill terrorists, under the theory that this will save lives in the long run …
It’s just not even remotely plausible.
He wants us to believe that an organization who
Can’t say if the man is wrong or right. However with Israel’s tech I’m surprised the Air Force and Drones have not picked up more locations.
It’s pretty obvious when those rockets launch. While some are very crude launch systems, thus may be a waste of time to put rounds or a missile on that location. Other systems more complex which I belive they are targeting.
I’vee seen video where Hizbollah litterly digs a dirt trench an launches the rockets from it. It’s not worth the ammo to respond since the terrorists move far away from the location before the launch.
Maybe the IDF drone tech is not up to snuff or they do not have “eyes on” enough soil to spot the locations.
But overall it’s a B.S. game that Hizbollah is playing I have a hard time believing all the casualties are “civilian”
utter insanity
Ricks is simply employing the tactic, often employed by wrongdoers and their advocates, that the good guy is guilty of whatever the bad guy is actually doing.
Hezbollah absolutely purposefully gets civilians killed for propaganda purposes. What better way to spin this than to pre-emptively maliciously accuse Israel of doing the same thing?
So this is exactly what I’d expect from a Hezbollah supporter, someone who would love to see Israel ‘lose’, no doubt.
It’s the same game liberals and leftists play such as Bush set up the 911 tragedy, and other conspiracy theories as well. I expect leftists watch X-files and leftist propaganda too much that they cannot guess rather it is reality or fake. Tell them to go to get a check up for mental illness.
When has Israel EVER CARED about PR?
That’s like saying Jennifer Lopez cared about good taste.
It’s a despicable aspersion that should never be made without supporting evidence. I have as much evidence to say Mr. Ricks helps fund Hezbollah to ensure he’ll have something to write about.
Israel should learn from HIZBOLLAH and shouldn’t do any things before thinking about losing HIZBOLLAH will beready at any time