Yesterday, I posted excerpts from a Weekly Standard piece detailing how UNIFIL had actively (whether intentionally or not is more difficult to prove) aided Hezbollah / Lebanon is its recent war with Israel by providing information about Israeli positions, troop deployment, etc.
Now, take that information and combine it with Zombietime’s extensive piece detailing the ICRC Ambulance 782 hoax—and all the other instances of fauxtography bloggers have uncovered from that conflict.
Keeping in mind that international pressure over how Israel was conducting the campaign (eg. allegations of war crimes, claims the IDF was intentionally targeting of civilians, etc) might have forced Israel into accepting a weak cease fire deal, you can begin to see how a cynical disinformation campaign carried out by the weaker actor can mitigate the military and strategic advantages of the stronger actor—particularly when that stronger actor is generally reviled by many the “international community,” as well as by the media organizations that cover international affairs (oftentimes reliant on foreign stringers), who, through a vicious cycle of anti-Israeli propaganda and the rhetorical effect that has on readers reared to trust in the general veracity of the “neutral” or “objective” press, are largely responsible for creating the conditions that lead to Israel hatred in the West to begin with.
Most disturbing is that the propaganda provided by Reuters, the AP, et al might not be intentional. Propaganda delivered intentionally is, of course, utterly despicable, and—when it comes from a news service—unconscionable. But it is propaganda that is accepted uncritically and reported as fact—thanks to years of having one’s worldview shaped by the previous generation of media propaganda—that is must troublesome. That is, if one is to believe that news agencies aren’t intentionally part of an international conspiracy that is actively combatting Israel and the US (under a Republican administration), one is forced to concede, based on the evidence that has been produced during the fauxtagraphy scandal, that many media personnel are being blinded by their own prejudices—so much so that they are willing to take at face value, and then propagate in advance of some determination of veracity, the very claims that they should be actively investigating.
News agencies being huge beasts, I suspect that some of the propaganda we see is intentional and some a product of ideological reinforcement—a willingness to have one’s biases and worldview reinforced by “facts” that are, in turns out, being used precisely for that purpose.
Which is how useful idiots are created.
And there are those who, rather than be exposed as either useful idiots or active collaborators in a conspiracy, will go to great lengths to hide their transgressions once they are uncovered.
****
related: From the Jerusalem Post:
“IDF forces from the Golani Brigade blasted open a Hizbullah bunker overnight Saturday some 400 meters from the security fence near Rosh Hanikra, it was reported on Sunday. The bunker was discovered a mere stone’s throw from a UN post.
According to Lt.-Col. Jassem Elian, a senior officer in the Golani Brigade, “Hizbullah dug a 40-meter by two-kilometer pit, in which they built dozens of outposts.”
Elian added that the bunker had “shooting positions of poured concrete,” and that the combat posts inside were equipped with phone lines, showers, toilets, air ducts, and emergency exits, as well as logistical paraphernalia for Hizbullah.
A Golani officer told the Jerusalem Post that among the force’s findings was a Katyusha rocket launcher, most likely used in rocket attacks against northern Israel during the war.
He also mentioned that Golani forces had initiated the move to uncover the bunker after the same battalion, in an earlier operation, had discovered maps specifying certain areas where Hizbullah had planned such tunnels in south Lebanon.”
As Clarice asks incredulously in the comments to my earlier post, “UNIFIL didn’t notice?”
See also, Townhall.
I am quite sure UNIFIL noticed. They may have even taken down some vague notes too. Not that anything was done with this information…
I wouldn’t be too surprised, if investigated, that the UN not only helped finance but possibly aided in its construction. I’d imagine that there were several misfiled posts regarding its construction, status, etc that “mistakenly†never saw the light of day ala Food for Oil. 40 meter by 2km… what’d they think, he was going for American Express Card?
I’m pretty well convinced that we’ve got a fauz ambulance attack redux in the “attack” on the Reuters vehicle in Gaza. I’m seeing a lot of restraint on this one, but I also see awfully clear evidence that we’ve been hoaxed again.
Why does Israel apologize for these things before determining whether they’ve actually done them?
Via LGF and Bryan at Hot Air.
And the award for run-on sentence of the month goes to…
Does this apply? From NYT:
In Gaza early Sunday, Israeli forces rocketed an armored car belonging to Reuters, wounding five people. The car was clearly marked on the sides and roof and was being used to cover an Israeli raid.
Capt. Noa Meir, an Army spokeswoman, said that the vehicle was in a combat area during a night raid and that the Army had not seen the markings.
The Foreign Press Association of Israel rejected the army’s “excuses†and called for a full investigation.
Chairman Me —
If you don’t know what a run-on sentence is, please stop using the desciption.
That is a long sentence. There’s a difference.
Why, I’m SHOCKED! How could thos evil zionists fire on a ROOTERS vehicle – even in the dark, in an active combat area?
Nah – not really. You pays your nickel and you takes your chances in a combat zone, boys. Welcome to the real world.
SB: took
a couple of hits
Was the NCOIC of that UN post near Rosh Hanikra a sergeant named Schultz, by any chance?
TW: Really!
Can ya blame em? Fella gets to noticin’ stuff over there, ya know, payin’ too close attention. Well. Lets just say it ain’t healthy noticin’ too much. Over there. Ya know?
Frankly, you’ve been en fuego the last couple of days, Jeff, with several very insightful, well-written and timely posts.
So, you know, thank you for that.
Can I just throw a few items out there, relating to this post?
Agree, but I might add that this strategy only really works if the “stronger” actor allows it to. Or, as we see in both the US and Israel, when a large enough plurality of voters force decision makers to factor in “public opinion” dynamics in a war zone environment.
Yep, and truth be told, I think this is far and away the most likely reason for the one-sided media presentation of the South Lebanon confrontation. What’s scary is that theoretically, you could shame the media out of an active conspiracy but its nearly impossible to reason these fools out of their blinkered views on Israel. The sky really is orange where they’re coming from.
Technically, you’re correct, though one could quibble over it. I won’t, but as a fan of Strunk & White I thought it was funny to read. For a second I thought you were posting someone’s thesis. No matter what, you must admire its beastly size. If only I could catch a trout like that.
When Jeff hasn’t cockslapped anyone for a few days, he makes up for it with long sentences. So it isn’t beastly, it’s manly. There’s a difference.
Don’t think of it as the use of long sentences, rather he’s conserving periods.
There’s a birth control pill that makes you only have four periods a year. How do you suppose I can convince Mrs. Chairman to take it?
Well…if you only want four periods per year, one pundit who comments here recommends Proust.
You need to see a medical doctor about your wife’s monthly visitor.
</i>Getting<i> her to see your point is another matter, entirely. That discussion may not be suitable for public consumption.
A true run-on sentence involves the art of conserving periods by inducing com(m)as.
My Gawd(Excited utterance) You think fuel is the only thing that has gone up in price lately(Query)
The price of punctuation has gone through the roof(Excited utterance) Periods and commas (comma) being the most common and thus the most in demand (comma) have more than quadrupled in price (period) Many who snickered and sneered at eliot are suddenly great fans (period)
This dire shortage is actually causing a calamity in some of the inner city schools (comma) where female English Comp students are upset about their missing periods (period)
You owe $34.95 for capitalizing each new sentence.
CAPITAL LETTERS have actually gone down in price (period) I can’t understand it (period)
Someone must have been hoarding them and dropped a bundle on the market (comma) trying to CAPITALIZE on a percieved shortage (period)
Ahh, but only if you buy in bulk. Your obvious attempt to control expenses by miminizing semi-colons (by the way, you owe $42.99 for semi-colons) has made your net capitalisation come in below expected output, thus envolking the higher rate.
Hey, I don’t set the rates, I just itemise them.
Quibbling with a statement you say is technically correct would seem to be the opposite of pedantic, wouldn’t it?
T.W.: The definition of “run-on sentence” is slowly being taken over by those who didn’t understand what they were being taught in English class.
(by the way, my strategy is to spell so abbismally, it distracts the auditors from the puncuation)
I’d use that excuse, too, but, I get my punctuation marks free; because, I belong to a membership punctuation club.
All I know is I’m going long on parenthesis.
rls,
McGehees comment exposed a error in your previous billing. What was itemized as semi-colons, was, in fact, parentheses. Naturally, those are a substantially more expensive puchase (being not subject to the bulk purchase rate), and your bill will reflect the change.
Thank you.
i cannot afford to continue this correspondence parentheses period parentheses since i am now just a mere employee of parentheses quotation mark parentheses the man parentheses quotation mark parentheses parentheses period parentheses
therefore this is the last that i have to say about punctuation period parentheses excited utterance parentheses
Fear not, fellow posters, for I have discovered a punctuation mine.
The yield of periods is disappointingly small; but semicolons—and em dashes!—as well as exclamation points are in excellent supply! (Parentheses are relatively abundant (though the lode is not(perhaps) inexhaustible).) And the common, or ballistic, comma, is available, in such quantities, that all may, cheerfully, employ, the serial usage, without guilt.
Do conserve or recycle the left and right angle bracket ⟨ and ⟩—they are in good supply, but as tag delimiters the demand is great. And above all conserve brackets {curly [and square]} due to problems with extraction from the ore. Really, the only disappointment is in periods; but (as good posters should) we can easily follow the example of our Generous Host, and find ways—some better, some worse—to seek alternatives, while remaining aware that not all punctuation is equipotent—that is, that the comma is used first for parentheticals, after which the em dash, the parenthesis, and the brackets may be used—and that it is not always good to eschew the humble exclamation point when emphasis is required and the supply of capital letters is running low.
Regards,
Ric
No it wouldn’t, actually, for as you can plainly see I don’t abide the careless reckoning of those who, for whatever purpose, purport to define to me what they think is the best, most concise way to write, which when you think about it is rather subjective anyway to most of us, who, for lack of any better option, are often wont to ramble on incessantly in a mode that, while technically correct, is somewhat difficult to follow (which, by the way, isn’t to say that what one says is meaningless, but rather to simply suggest that what one wants to say, that what one is trying to say, is a very complex idea, and that I would never fault anyone for having any sort of trouble, either in writing or simply pondering, the meaning thereof)–but I digress, for what is really important is the process by which each man (or woman)undertakes to come to an understanding of what is spoken by another, whether he be a man of many words, or a lover of wit through brevity like myself.
By the way, what the fuck is the opposite of
?
TW: I move to table this discussion until some of Protein Wisdom’s female commenters can supply us with very sorely needed periods.
Great!! The punctuation market will be flooded, throwing thousands of punctuation monitors out of work!
Oh well, there’s always spelling nazi to fall back on…
HUZZAH!!!!!!!!!—-(That is, good show, ole’ chap!!!!)
But what of these:
As ever, Ric is to the rescue!!! It was getting rather expensive and tiring trying to conserve punctuation, as could be gathered from my prior posts – some rather difficult to follow.
Thanks, Ric!!
Dang. And I was about to perfect my formula for synthetic punctuation.
Guess I’ll just patent the process and wait until you wasteful punctuators deplete the new source as you have all the others.
Mark my words, Peak Punctuation is on the horizon!
Why it’s this with a “not the fuck” in front of it, of course.
rls,
You fogot the space after your comma.
PEDANTICIST!!!
*forgot*
“Shit” muttered mojo, unlimbering his mu-blaster. ”Grammarians! Cover me, Rocky…”
SB: take
42
I mostly lurk………. But….. I can be one of Protein Wisdom’s female commenters for now, if it helps……………………………………….
McGehee,
Artificial punctuation has been available for a long time. This does not mean there are no opportunities in the field—quite the contrary, in fact. The Uphoff-Pulitzer process hasn’t been modernized in decades, other than to miniaturize the apparatus, and unfortunately it produces mostly full stops, with perhaps twenty percent commas and only a trace of the more complex marks.
Almost all newspapers and newsmagazines that publish in English have a “UP Box” off in a corner somewhere, and the abundance of periods available is what drives them toward short declarative sentences whenever possible. The things have to be used, or they contaminate the decimal point supply.
The young James Joyce was compelled to operate one of the original, clanking, steam-driven models for some time. His horror and disgust at the experience accounts for much that is puzzling about his work. And of course it is the elitist avoidance of “Frankenstops” that drives academic writing in the direction(s) it has gone in the recent past.
An improved process, one that produces “points” in something more nearly approaching their natural relative abundances, would be welcomed all ‘round. Continue your research. It has the potential to benefit all mankind except, perhaps, the German-speaking subset.
Regards,
Ric
Heh. My process shows a great deal of promise for producing enough umlauts for Germany, Austria and the Swiss.
You really need to do your research.
Umlauts are produced by a frost-hardy plant, die Punktunkrauten, which thrives in Central Europe despite all attempts to eradicate it. Its life cycle has not been fully studied, but there is suspicion that its growth is stimulated by drifting pollen carried on Easterly breezes from zones where Cyrillic is cultivated. Its leaves and stems also serve as a reservoir of infection for Frakturmold.
After attempts in the late 1700s and early 1800s to break the umlauts into periods and export them to England failed, a laborious manual process for converting them into apostrophes and cedillas was invented. The resulting cross-Rhine trade breaks even, but even so vast supplies of umlauts must be destroyed by burning every Spring. Even the later discovery, that fermentation of umlauts in the presence of capsicin produces tildes, has not made a dent in the oversupply despite the fact that the yield is low.
As a result, another source of umlauts would be regarded rather as we Texans would an artificial producer of mesquite. Concentrate on producing periods, commas, and perhaps semicolons; you might also see about upping the supply of the solidus. (Note that Bill Gates chose the reverse one in hopes of not overdepleting the natural resource.) If you must venture further, consider producing an effective umlauticide, which would be much more welcome.
Regards,
Ric
Ric, ixnay on the unktunkrautenpay. I’ve developed a hemicalcay ompundcay that will ipeway it outay.
It’s based on what Darth Rove used to wipe out the dinosaurs so the fossil fuel supplies would be limited.
Geez, fellas, I wish I could help, but my birth control method of choice cuts them down even more than the four per year the Chairman is hankering for – sorry. (No, it’s not pregnancy – that method just wasn’t working out for us, as babies kept appearing, willy-nilly, and defeating the whole purpose.)
Hey, maybe that explains why I’m so prone to long and alternatively-punctuated sentences myself; I’ll have to investigate further, though, since correlation isn’t causation and all that.