“I can never understand why journalists are so quick to accept without scepticism the claims of tyrants, dictators and members of so-called 'oppressed' groups but parse minutely and with great mistrust the pronouncements of democratically elected officials.”
So said Gordon King over at NZ Pundit after an Israeli missile strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza last month. Palestinians claimed the attack on a car caused major civilian casualties, but Israeli officials countered that the attack was made with two Hellfire missiles, which deliver a clinical strike. They even released a low-resolution video purporting to show what happened.
Our indomitable defender of truth, freedom and the right of Israel to do whatever it wants pounced on the original report: “Anyway, the main lesson here in case you didn't already know it is that Reuters is unreliable and functions as a useful idiot for the Palestinian propaganda machine.”
Right.
Now, it appears, these “democratically elected officials” (read as "government-appointed defence lackeys") have lied to us.
Unbelievable. Who would have thought it?
It seems only the first missile used was a Hellfire and they’re not saying what the second was, but speculation is that it was a Flechette, an American missile that is illegal under international law because it “fires thousands of tiny darts over hundreds of metres, causing horrific injuries.”
Ahh, so you didn’t really need to be near the car to be injured because the weapon was designed to kill or maim anybody in the general vicinity.
Fair enough, I suppose, in Gordo-Land.
Anyway the rugger has finally ended. I never did commit to either side in the final, despite immense pressure being brought to bear. It was a great game and the poms deserved to win. Not only that, they played an attacking brand of footy that did the finals proud. Most Aussies aren’t too upset. Their team played out of their skins over the last two games and very nearly pulled it off against the odds.
For us kiwis there is a silver lining: We have the Bledisloe, we have the tri-nations and the Aussies have… squat! But the poms will be potentially hard to live with. It’ll be interesting to see how gracious they can be in victory.
Rock on, kids.