rabas

Wow, the greatest deceptive twist ever, like a Möbius strip tied in knots. Ukraine did not launch a massive terror attack on Russia butchering 1000s of Russian women and Children. Duh. Still haven't answered my first question ...

Targeting buildings and tunnels is not vaguely 'carpet bombing'. Fun world where one just makes up anything they want. Do you think inventing so much inflammatory crap in such volatile situations contributes to worsening the situation?

But then you know the IDF has not sought a 'collective punishment' as you suggest rather they worked hard to warn civilians before attacks and even ask those in northern Gaza to move south out of harms way and about 700,000 did. Considering what happened, stopping Hamas is self defense.

But that was not the question. You mentioned Iran's aim, goals in supporting Hamas. So what are those goals? As your statement, only you would know what you meant.

Good, we have taken the first small step towards a real discussion. Now, what are those Iranian goals for which they support Hamas?

Well, he's not providing billions, weapons, training to slit throats, etc. So your question is poorly defined if at all. Who know's what it means? Let's start with a much better grounded question. Let me ask you, why is Iran supporting Hamas so much for so long?

I basically agree. My point was US/Western high tech military might is a strong deterrent to Iran's normal adventurism, which in part got us to where we are and has been growing. While two big aircraft carriers is good optics, it also suggests the US/West are taking risks seriously. Although overt, direct support for Hamas is not in Iran's interest (as you say) nor its way, I still worry about dangerous unintended paths to the future . Someone once explained to me that Iran's actions are very hard to influence, I think I was talking about Putin at the time. As for destabilizing Iran, one can only hope. There's little stability except for the regime's iron fist. I've worked with/in Iran extensively, not many fancy the regime outside of rural religious enclaves. The locals speculate who carries a pocket razor. When the regime falls they'll dash into a toilet, shave, and exit saying Hallo! ready for business.

All hell may depend on things like whether Iran's unstoppable hypersonic missiles work any better than Russia's, which were all shot down by aging Patriot missiles. Gerald R Ford likely has better ones. But any shooting between Iran and the West would be real bad.

The absolute minimum from stopping Hamas terror for once and for all. Because the horrific death of children will not stop until Hamas is stopped. Oh, and by the way, it's all children not just Palestinian children.

Yes, a very nice statement by the Chinese ambassador, I bookmarked it. Now the rest of the story. Both sides of the free world divide, West vs Russia - China, have been trading UN vetos and getting nowhere. The Chinese ambassador is making a sound good speech (which I accept as genuine), after vetoing the following: (Times of India reference) In a significant diplomatic development, Russia and China wielded their veto power at the United Nations Security Council to quash a U.S.-sponsored resolution. The resolution had sought to address the Israel-Hamas conflict by proposing humanitarian pauses in the hostilities to facilitate the delivery of aid, safeguard civilians, and curtail the arming of Hamas and other militants in Gaza. The U.S. presented the resolution in light of mounting concerns about the deepening humanitarian crisis and a rising civilian death toll in Gaza.

I blame the smoker. In other words, simple one liners don't work.

So you realize that Hamas is the problem. If the best time to kill Hamas was 15 years ago, the second best time is now. Welcome on board.

What you say is because you are culturally isolated here. I speak disarmingly fluent Thai and spend my time with my large Thai family and those I work with. What's more, my favorite activity is walking around goofing on total strangers, aka phoot len. I get about a 90% hit rate. But you bring up a good point. In Thailand (away from tourist areas) you often need to be the one to break the ice. This is backwards from your experience in Colorado where social banter can be a requirement and may not be an indicator of true friendliness. Said another way, there are different kinds of friendliness like New England versus the southern states.

No reason given is not equal to no reason.

More wrong fact and figures. Nuclear tons of TNT are not equal to tons of conventional bombs. The weight of actual explosives in a conventional bomb can be a 3rd to half of its total weight, so you're wrong by 2 to 3 times. A 570lb Mk82 bomb has about 192lb of explosives. ref Worse is comparing with radioactive nukes, just more rabid propaganda. There have been a lot of bombs dropped causing Gaza's people great suffering. The kicker is none of that would have happened without Hamas firing 7000 rockets at Israeli citizens and butchering 1000s, first.

You forgot it's most important to find a way to stop it. That is the only humane path. Letting it repeat is the worst crime of all.

You can't 'genocide' a terror group. Worth a thought though. All you complain about is expressly because Hamas, a terror group, hides among innocent civilians. Ask them to step outside Gaza to protect those civilians, and you solve your problem. Oh, and using human shields is a war crime.

You mean folks trying to make it all look the same?

If you read the article with an open, alert mind the difference between Hamas and Israel is orders of magnitude Hamas, Obvious, massive, unparalleled war crimes of the worst types. One for the history books. Israel: Maybe collective punishment, someone suggested, for asking Gazans to move to safety. But others say no. Using munitions that, well OK, are not technically outlawed, but not nice. Then blocking aid that would go the enemy combatant Hamas anyway. And maybe someone did something. Even Hamas war crimes inside Gaza using citizens as human shields and placing combatants and weapons next to hospitals and public sanctuaries is far worse than any Israel crimes, if in fact there were any. Bad guys always want to make it look the same, and they should be criticized for it.

Do you mean a Church whose wall collapsed because Hamas was using it as a shield when they got bombed by Israel? That was an accident.

Why do you listen to politically oriented NYT about a technical issue? AP visual analysis: Rocket from Gaza appeared to go astray, likely caused deadly hospital explosion If you only consider technical analysis from people with expertise, the case is closed. Aside from seeing the Hamas rocket flame out and fall on the hospital, there is not a shred of evidence it was from Israel. Edit: Sheesh.

Good question, but the simple answer may be they're not, maybe just the opposite. Remember that from early on their neighbors (basically) wanted to continue where the Nazis left off. Wipe out the rest of them. However real, the message was clear. So instead of poor persecuted Jewish folks suddenly turning Nazi on the kindly Arab neighbors trying to kill them, they saw a continuation of persecution and responded as they have. So all considered, their neighbors chose the absolute worst possible way to go about things. Notwithstanding the real issues for local Palestinians, etc.

Real bummer, Britmantoo. Worst type of MC accident where defensive driving doesn't work. Get well soon, but from experience it won't be so fast, just focus on each day and know someday it will all heal. Were you knocked unconscious? You said 'the next thing I knew'. Do you remember the actual collision? When I had mine I was knocked off the bike (lovely little Sportster 1200), landed on my helmet, and woke surrounded by people and an ambulance. Only later I realized I had no memory of the collision. My memory ends about 2 seconds before when I started to adjust for impact. A concussion can cause memory loss that includes a few seconds before the event. Broken tape or something. More important, I fixed the bike and continued riding. Hope yours is OK as well. Good luck, well, maybe a bit late...

I've hesitated to mention this but on the day of the attack videos were posted in pro Hamas propaganda streams showing live children being butchered. The videos were taken down as they appeared. I saw two, but I had to close the second one and log out, utterly horrific. Up close and clear, purposely filmed for posting, not body camera footage. I'm sure the intelligence agencies have this material.

If you mean Thorgal has no clue about international law, I agree. He hasn't a clue about rockets or physics either.