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January 31, 2008
Winograd Report

The Winograd report on Israel’s 2006 war on Lebanon is largely a whitewash for Olmert and the Israeli military. His government may survive after all.

But what did the writers think of when they wrote in the report’s summary:

we regard the 2nd Lebanon war as a serious missed opportunity

A missed opportunity to do what? The report doesn’t explain.

But it is quite truthful on who started the war:

Israel initiated a long war …
…
… it was a limited war initiated by Israel itself

The report also states that the use of cluster bombs does not conform to international law.

But it does not recommend any punishment for those who ordered and committed the crime of dropping these. As UN mine clearance officials report, Israel is still withholding where such bombs were dropped.

Since the end of the war, over 30 Lebanese have been killed and over 200 injured, many permanently disabled from the loss of a limb after accidentally triggering an unexploded bomblet.

For the farmers in south Lebanon the war is still going on.

Posted by b on January 31, 2008 at 14:44 UTC | Permalink
Comments

Tony Karon says:

That much Winograd was prepared to say bluntly. But what he doesn’t explain is why things played out in this way.
And here, I think, he’s avoiding the elephant in the room: the very clear sense, throughout the Lebanon misadventure, that Israel was coordinating its actions with Washington to an extent that the Bush Administration’s own decisions had a decisive impact on how Israel waged its campaign. Once Israel had launche its initial air raids, the U.S. quickly moved to define the objectives of the war in terms far more expansive than Israel had ever intended, using its diplomatic veto to block a ceasefire that the Israeli leadership had, in fact, been counting on when they began.
…
It was clear, at the time, that the neophyte Olmert was outsourcing his decision-making to Condi Rice.
…
The Winograd report, as far as I can tell from the reporting I’ve seen, has avoided asking these questions. And that’s unfortunate, not only because it fails to establish a complete picture of what shaped Olmert’s decision making — was he just a shlemiel, or was he Bush’s Shlemiel? — but because it avoids forcing Israelis to confront the consequences of the disastrous policies the Bush Administration has purused, often on its behalf, over the past eight years.

Posted by: b | Jan 31 2008 17:05 utc | 1

Sy Hersh reported at the time that Israel had a “go massive” (with their patented brand of collective punishment, apparently) plan ready to go just waiting for a pretext that it had shared with the US before the initial border skirmish happened.

Posted by: ran | Jan 31 2008 22:19 utc | 2

On McCain “I have confidence in this president (Bush) and I have confidence in his team that they will lead us through this crisis,” McCain said, noting that the U.S. role as a superpower demands that it flex its diplomatic muscle.
“You can’t expect the French to lead. You can’t expect the Germans to lead. You can’t even expect the British, our friends, to lead. The United States has to lead,” he said.
The conflict involving Israel, McCain said, “is all part of this struggle that we’re in.”
“The struggle is between radical extremist Islamic forces throughout the world.
Rejecting condemnation by some over the extent of Israel’s use of force.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jan 31 2008 22:53 utc | 3

Israel: Winograd Commission disregards Israeli war crimes

Amnesty International called a report published yesterday by the Winograd Commission on Israel’s conduct in the war with Hizbullah in July-August 2006 “deeply flawed.”
The organization said that the report failed to investigate a crucial aspect of the war — the government policies and military strategies that failed to discriminate between the Lebanese civilian population and Hizbullah combatants and between civilian property and infrastructure and military targets.
“This was yet another missed opportunity to address the policies and decisions behind the grave violations of international humanitarian law — including war crimes — committed by Israeli forces,” said Malcolm Smart, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme.

Posted by: b | Feb 1 2008 6:51 utc | 4

Kudos to the Israelis for having the courage to at least investigate their wars, something that virtually no other country in the world is honest enough to do. Hopefully some day the less advanced and less democratic peoples in the US and the UK will follow their lead and also investigate their wars and publish the truth. Unlikely though, since they’re Christians, and Christian nations don’t seem to care much about the truth or the law.

Posted by: mike | Feb 2 2008 19:31 utc | 5

@Mike – The Winograd report was a whitewash and there is nothing honest about it. Such reports are done by this or that committee in countries over the world independent of any religious affiliation.
Your comment is simply nonsense.

Posted by: b | Feb 2 2008 19:50 utc | 6

winograd report a whitewash
crimes clothed in commentary/critique
murder dressed up as analysis
preemptive wars inherently psychopathic

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 2 2008 20:13 utc | 7

virtually no other country in the world is honest enough to do.
lol, i am having a good chuckle over the idea of israel being an honest broker.

Posted by: annie | Feb 2 2008 21:07 utc | 8

right Mike, this murderous little lawless apartheid state Israel gives a rat’s ass about “truth” or “the law”.
pass what you’re smoking this way please.

Posted by: ran | Feb 2 2008 22:08 utc | 9

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