Thursday, July 27, 2006

Playing THE GAME

Yesterday I intended to write about movies and some interesting aspects of some of the more recent movies I've seen. Unofrtunately I've eventually decided against that.
Today I'm going to write about a game. It's called 'the game of interests'. Actually the game resembles more of a subtle war that takes places at the border between words and actions. Actions show one image, words show another, but in the end actions are those that reveal the new state of things after a given event.
Usually there're great discrepancies between words and actions and there's nothing better to reveal this that the latest developments in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine.
The essential element in the battle of words is that words should try to cover as much as possible for actions, when actions contradict words and similarly, to boast actions whenever actions go the same way as words. Knowing this makes it easy for an observer to ask the right questions when the current state of facts opposes the expressed intentions.
Let's begin with a very simple example: yesterday in Lebanon four UN observers were killed in an Israeli raid while they were taking cover in an underground bunker. Additional facts: said bunker belonged to UNAFIL, the UN mission in Lebanon and it was specifically marked to be indetified from both air and land. Additionally it was marked on regional maps and on extended country maps. Additionally, the entire camp was shelled 17 times by artillery. In this stituation, the commander called the Israeli troops to notify them of their proximity and the fact that the target was a UN camp. Logs show 10 calls made by UNAFIL, while the Israeli military liaison shows only 6. Additionally, reports identified that another UNAFIL rescue mission was shelled by artillery while trying to remove the bodies from the rubble and check for suvivors. The weapons used were american-made laser-guided precision bunkerbuster.
In this situation, the Secretary General Kofi Annan called the attack 'deliberate' and demanded explanation. The Israeli ambassador to UN, called Annan's conclusion 'premature' and that the raid was a 'regrettable mistake'.
Recap: was it deliberate or maybe the Israeli army simply couldn't read maps, was blind to markers, didn't hear the phone, finger slipped on the laser targetting system and the slipped again on the release button three times? Somehow I'm inclined to believe the Israeli ambassador and further suggest that the Israeli army should lay down weapons before it hurts itself