Sunday, December 28, 2008

Things you Can Learn from Aerial Photos

The IDF website has a series of aerial photos of targets hit yesterday by the Israeli Air Force. Now I know, many people won't believe the IDF website, sight unseen and no matter what, as it just has to be a propaganda tool of the bad guys. Still, it's instructive. The aerial photos demonstrate that, contrary to the impression hammered home by Israel's mostly uninformed critics, the targets yesterday were mostly NOT situated in densely populated areas, and it would have been possible to take careful aim at them and reasonably expect not to harm innocent civilians.

Of course, collecting factual evidence and trying to understand what it means is much less fun than knee-jerk ideological rants. I can appreciate that, of course. But it's sort of what participants in rational discussions in the democratic tradition are encouraged to do, as part of what differentiates them from believers of voodoo cults, medieval throngs, and fascist mobs.

(hat tip: Noah Pollack)

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