Mike covers the story, so I don’t have to:
It is, of course, impossible to ascertain how many of the Lebanese casualties were civilian and how many were Hezbollah, given that Hezbollah hid and fought among civilians, its fighters often wore civilians clothes, and many of its wounded fighters were evacuated to Syria.
However, what is clear is that around half of the Lebanese casualties were Hezbollah fighters; in fact, if the lower figures for total Lebanese casualties and the upper figures for Hezbollah fighters are nearer the mark, then the majority of Lebanese casualties were Hezbollah. What clearly isn’t true is the BBC’s mantra that most of the Lebanese casualties were civilians.
The point of this post isn’t to rehash the wider debate on civilian casualties in Lebanon or any other war, which has been well aired. The point is to draw attention to the fact that, more than a year after the war, the BBC continues to publish claims about civilian casualties which it must know to be false, and continues to play down the losses inflicted on Hezbollah.
Read it all.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.†— Joseph Goebbels
The Beeb apparently learned well from the greatest propagandist ever.
Goebbels was right sad to say.
Is it any wonder why the Brits have such a low opinion of Israel. Their public is constantly bombarded with a barrage of anti-Israel garbage spewing from their MSM sites, and very little dissenting opinion.
Orwell’s 1984 is alive and well in 2007 England.