Originally Posted by
Long Duck Dong
1) standard procedure..... trained professionals will be at ease at nighttime, but untrained civilians / protestors will not be as co ordinated....
there is also the possibility of closeness to the blockade line and it may have been a last minute action
2) to talk yes .... but they continued to sail forward....
they were asked to stop repeatedly and warned before they set sail, not to try and break the blockade..... how much more time did they need ????? another week ????
3) ahh I will argue that.... they fired across the bow, not at the ships, there is no footage showing any bullet impact marks on the ships.... I would expect that at least if shots were fired at the ships....
4) agreed and leave paint marks a bit like the * blood * that a journalist saw... that apparently turned out to be paint......
using paint balls would have been a way to turn and distract people and drive them back from the rappeling soliders....
btw thats not proven as what happened, but it would make sense and it can match the reports of shoots fired at the ship and paint on the rails....
but that would prove it was paintballs and not bullets that were fired at the ships
5) some of the protestors themselves made statements about that.... not the israelis, but the passengers on the ships... I am too lazy to look up the links again... but I recall the statements by protestors made within 2 days of the event, refering to the fact that the turkish protestors that attacked the soliders, never boarded at the same port the aid was loaded at, they boarded later at another port
6) how..... how would you stop them.... without disabling the ships....and risking everybody on body....
7) thats not disputed... the israelis boarded the ships, agreed...... but protestors using hostile force against soldiers is not a normal aspect of protestors or peaceful protest, its normally done by activists and extreme activists, not human aid protestors....
7) you put 7 twice.... but yes, loudhailers could be used... it doesn't mean that people will listen..... might makes right, a large loaded ship is not easy to stop and using loudhailers will not work that well when stopping ships, unless the captain gives the order to stop ship
8) nothing was found on board.... so the protestors had nothing to fear or hide...... yet they avoided stopping for a inspection
by defination would that give me the right to ignore police and fail to stop cos I have nothing to hide
9) nothing.... same as the protesters.... but I tend to think that you are like me...... not everything that is investigated, means that the truth is revealed either.....
people want to hear is that israel was wrong.....
not that the protesters acted in any manner that was wrong under the international aid laws that protected them..... but that israel was wrong...
and we both know that there will be a number of people not happy with any findings and rulings that find one or the other or both groups at fault.....
I say that if the ships had gone to port and being inspected, none of this would have happened, .... going to port may be right or wrong in peoples eyes.... but its a simple case of the deaths could have been avoided.....by a simple action.....
let the governments fight over if the blockade is legal or not.... the mission was to deliever aid to gaza and it would have got there without loss of life