Killing 56 civilians, most of whom were women and children, doesn't help you win a war. It galvanizes the enemy. It turns world opinion against you. There are strategic reasons, as well as the obvious humanitarian ones, for being extremely careful with giant bombs. That this kind of tragedy routinely happens in war is one of the best arguments for avoiding war whenever possible. War is that horrible. What Israel did by accident is routinely done on purpose by Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist enemies of the Jewish state. But it is not by the standards of such vermin that civilized nations are judged. If the denunciations of Israel's actions are louder than the denunciations of the terror conducted by Israel's enemies, hypocrisy is one explanation. Another is the tacit admission within such protests: we expect better. Israel's 48-hour timeout on bombings in southern Lebanon suggests that they expect better too.

It is a tragedy. The images of children's bodies being carried out of the rubble limp and covered in ash is horrific. And Israel should do all it can to avoid such consequences.

If Hamas or Hezbollah had done this very same thing, it would have been "praise Allah". Difference being that Israel demonstrates conscience and remorse. That's how civilized countries treat such atrocities.

When we capture terrorists, we put them in clean prisons, cater to their every whim and when our guards put underwear on their heads or make human pyramids out of them, we prosecute the perps. When the same terrorists capture innocents, they cut their heads off and broadcast the event on pan-Arab TV.

Obviously a tragedy, and obviously Israel, unlike Hamas or Hezbollah, is not deliberately trying to kill innocents.

The 56 civilians killed was a horrible thing, don't get me wrong. However, the media often stretches and exagerates things Israel does, giving the nation a bad record. If you watched the NBC nightly news as well as Fox News you got a very different perspective of Israel in this situation. Check this out to see the huge bias different media outlets from all over the world use when reporting in events involving Israel. http://www.honestreporting.com/

I am often struck by how the dialogue within Israel over their policies is a much more open one then the discussion in this country over our own mideast policies and our support for specific Israeli initiatives. The front pages of Israeli papers were largely filled with news and pictures of this tragedy, and their various political parties are rarely single-minded about what to do as regards the Palestinians or, in this case, southern Lebanon. It is strange that it would be that way. They seem to have a much more responsible media then we do.

Brian

I've heard it said that the Israeli media is more responsible than the American media. I read their media from time to time. They do seem to present a rather fair and balanced picture. This is in contrast to the Arab media. The Arab media does not present a fair and balanced picture.

I would tend to agree that the Aemrican media is not always responsible. The American media largely seems to treat the parties as equal or tilts pro-Palestinian. I don't think a terrorist organization should be treated as equal to a western style democracy.

Not 56. Just trying to be accurate.