Skip to main content

Through a spinning world





So, since I was already at Reuters, I thought I'd check the headlines, and lo and behold read that the "militant" designation, rather than "terrorist," continues, but with even greater fervor. For instance, the headline reads:



Israeli Forces Kill Five Palestinians



...and the story begins:



Israeli forces killed at least six Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip Wednesday, but both sides drew closer to agreement on an Israeli plan to ease a military clampdown in occupied areas.
Now, when a lot of web sites (such as Yahoo!) picks up Reuters (or AP, or whoever), they often only print the headline and the first paragraph. You have to click the link to read the entire story. So, a quick scan of web "headlines" would read that those vicious bastards, the Israelis, and just killing Palestinians again.



But, ah ha, keep reading:



Israeli undercover soldiers on a "roundup of wanted terrorists" killed four militants and wounded another three in an exchange of fire with gunmen holed up in a building in the West Bank city of Tulkarm, an Israeli military spokesman said.
Well, they don't seem so innocent any more, despite first impressions. Israel calls them "terrorists," so to remain non-judgmental, Reuters re-christens them "militants."



It, of course, gets better:



Palestinian residents said one those killed was a local militant leader.



In the Gaza Strip, an Israeli sniper shot dead Hussam Hamdan, 27, a senior member of the military wing of Hamas, an Islamic group dedicated to Israel's destruction.
"Local militant leader" of a group which, tada, we finally read is "dedicated to Israel's destruction." There, even Reuters said it. Maybe it's time to stop this silly talk about appeasing these people? They don't want peace; they want the end of Israel.



And they broadcast their attitudes and intent:



Senior Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantissi, vowing revenge for Hamdan's death, said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon should now be killed.



[...]



"I demand and urge the military apparatus of Hamas to target...Sharon personally and to target his house and his son," Rantissi told Reuters.
His son? This is important why? For terror, of course. But these are militants, remember, not terrorists.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Not the Hero We Deserve, But the Hero We Need

The Dark Knight is the best film I’ve seen in years. Not just the best “superhero” film, but the best film of any type. It’s not perfect, not quite a masterpiece, but it’s flaws are, to me, tiny and overwhelmed by the time the film ends. While relatively bloodless, it is consistently brutal, not just in what it depicts but in the themes that drive it. TDK is a film for adults, please leave the kids at home. Let’s deal with those “flaws” first, the largest being the character Rachel Dawes . In Batman Begins , I blamed Katie Holmes . Her acting was weak, to say the least, which is regrettable in that who she is and what she says and does are important to the film. Critics agreed and either for that or other reasons, Katie was replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal , who is a better actress. Yet here she’s weak, real weak. Maybe it’s the character, not the actress, which is frustrating because Rachel is a pivotal character. The film,...
1 comment
Read more

John Wick: Chapter 4

No sense in playing coy, this is a great film. I’ve seen it twice and while I don’t quite love it in the way I love the first, original John Wick , it’s my #2. It’s a little overlong, has some wasted space and time, has one absolutely pointless and useless character, and generally ignores the realities of firefights, falling, getting shot, hit, etc. All that notwithstanding, it’s a great action flick, has a genuine emotional core, and is well worth your time if you’re into that sort of thing. Like I am. Summary: John Wick (Keanu Reeves), last seen saying he was fed up with the High Table, goes to war to obtain his freedom. Some of the most incredible action scenes ever filmed ensue, culminating in a very satisfactory finale and a devastating post-credit scene. The first Wick film was a surprise hit. It was a simple, straight-forward tale of vengeance told in a simple, straight-forward manner. Where it stood out was its devotion to human stunt work, on exploiting long camera shots that ...
Post a Comment
Read more

DVD: The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

Awful. The film is an environmentalist wacko wet dream. No one else could like this thing. I’m trying to think of something positive and all I can come up with is how positively awful it is. The original The Day the Earth Stood Still is a science fiction masterpiece. In it, Klaatu comes to Earth with a simple message: Do what you want among yourselves and on your planet. But if you attempt to export your violent way to the stars, Gort and his friends will hit you with so many lefts you’ll beg for a right. (Gort being the cosmic version of Chuck Norris, you see.) The ultimate warning was that we needed to change our violent ways if we expected to be accepted among the stars. In this remake, the aliens are environmental busy-bodies who have bought into the entire notion that we puny little humans are capable of destroying the planet. Therefore, we must be eliminated so that the planet, for God knows what reason, can try again. To count the ways in which this film makes no sense ...
1 comment
Read more