Hamas' brutality is unpardonable

[AloeVera]

185. Trust me, people in Gaza don't live in the Land of Make Believe. They live the horror every moment.

You an I, on the other hand, "internet warriors" that we are, are incredibly lucky and priviledged to be able to debate their lives and deaths from a safe distance.

You are clearly saying that international laws take a back stage to meeting military objectives. That's a very basic point that we disagree on. In my view, international laws were put in place precisely to reign in nations that believe they can conduct a war in the way that is based solely on their own objectives. The thinking being that civilian lives were just as important, if not more, than any nation's goals in war.

The conditions on the ground as you define them are highly debatable. I don't think that your views of what those are are necessarily accurate. I don't believe, for instance, that designating civilians as "human shields" should be an automatic death sentence for them. I question how people living in an apartment building that MAY also house a Hamas family can suddenly lose their lives because they are now unknowingly an unfortunate "human shield" I question also how Hamas can be hiding or storing weapons in close to 300,000 housing units, nearly all hospitals and medical facilities (around 200), nearly all schools and mosques, nearly all office buildings, bakeries, markets and many infrastructure-related buildings necessary for sustaining human life.

As I look at the enormous physical damage done to almost all of Gaza, I have to wonder how it is that Hamas managed to hide or store weapons in all of them. I also have to wonder why it is that the high number of civilian casualties are so easily dismissed by claims of "human shields'" and whether there is something wrong or even nefarious in the use of this justification. It seems to me that if you define a human shield as a civilian in any sort of proximity to a Hamas fighter, a Hamas home, a Hamas military-whatever, you have unrestrained latitude in bombing pretty much any building or facility anywhere in Gaza. You don't even have to provide proof, it's a blanket get-out-of-jail card.

So to me, what is "insane" is accepting without questioning the claims that all of this destruction, all of these deaths, all this suffering, the coming starvation and disease, were necessary and unavoidable. I can tell you that once you start questioning, it can lead to places that are far from the Land of Make Believe.