Communicating Arts - Main Web SitePerhaps I have simply missed the occassion: at Lebanon's "Army Day" on August 1, which went well but was to have been even more festive, the troops at Nahr al-Bared still had some yards to go, and tough yards they were to prove, booby trapped, mined, and facing not only fighters who had long ago relinquished retreat and surrender both but also their wives and children.
Most western journalists, if not all, would soundly condemn the cynical use of women and children as "human shields" by such as Fatah al-Islam, but at Nahr al-Bared, to speculate for a moment, so little informaton--none--pops up on the web for that last true day of fighting, the thought of forcing government troops to kill every last man, woman, and child, and then having that done, destroys all hope for the continuing celebration of the victory.
In the final moments of the last act, having won may have meant standing over not only the bodies of men with weapons but their infants, possibly, as well.
In the "hot potato" game (don't blame me; it's not my fault) popular throughout the middle east, there's not much to pass off to Americans, Israelis, Syrians or others as regards the deaths of innocents at any army's hands in the last gasps of battle, but there is this:
1. Lebanese security, from detectives I am sure to General Michel Sleiman acted quickly and decisively to halt a sophisticated, trained, and well-armed foreign incursion coming through the Palestinian camp that was Nahr al-Bared;
2. The methods applied, both of long cordon and siege, methodical shelling, and finally patient march into the camp effectively spared the lives of approximately 30,000 Palestinians, and even in the last week or so of the process enabled another 150 persons or more to bus out of the camp; it's my understanding that orders to spare children where possible remained in effect to the end.
The problem with "no press" or a "press blackout" is that the absence of information inspires speculation.
I am merely guessing that Fatah al-Islam preferred death for all, including their children, to surrender of any.
I am also speculating on the battle concluding.
Another might wonder what other weapons were found at the final ground zero, or who, possibly, lay among the dead in addition to those know.
That's not for me.
If I can find an account of the last day of fire exchanged at Nahr al-Bared, I will update.
To any reading or publishing out of Lebanon, there is always the story of the last casualty too, the most unlucky of men for dying in combat on the cusp of peace. Someone should tell that soldier's story.
Correspondence and Permissions: James S. Oppenheim
Comments