Credibility deficit
Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth had an op-ed piece published in the Jerusalem Post earlier this week condemning Hezbollah for its "Indiscriminate Bombardment" of civilian areas within Israel using katyusha rockets.
Why did so many Lebanese civilians lose their lives to Israeli bombing? The government line is that the IDF was doing the best it could, but these deaths were the result of Hizbullah hiding its rockets and fighters among civilians. But that assertion doesn't stand up to the facts.
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Of course Hizbullah did sometimes hide among civilians, breaching its duty to do everything feasible to protect civilians and possibly committing the war crime of deliberate shielding, but that's not the full story.Human Rights Watch investigated some two dozen bombing incidents in Lebanon involving a third of the civilians who by then had been killed. In none of those cases was Hizbullah anywhere around at the time of the attack.
Oops, maybe I read that wrong.
David Bernstein has more on Human Rights Watch's complete lack of a moral compass over at the Volokh Conspiracy. He also hits Amnesty International for similar treatment.
Once upon a time these organizations did some good work, but it is quickly fading into a distant memory. Their credibility goes into the tank when they can't (or won't) tell the difference between a democratic nation defending its citizens from terrorists and terrorists using civilians as human shields.
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Ah, but you see it is easy to criticize a democracy. The terrorists, on the other hand, are more than willing to kidnap, torture, and kill. The do-gooders lack the courage to actually stand up for their beliefs, so they rationalize the side they choose. It couldn't be more obvious than in the case of Lebanon - just look at the insane contortions to paint Israel as the bad guy when they were attacked and their soldiers were kidnapped.
Since the truth tends to outrage some of my wingnut friends: Save the chickenhawk slur - I'm a Vietnam era vet, volunteer, USMC. I'm calling it the way I see it.