Extremely sad news.. RIP!

Erlindur you wrote,

Instead some wise guy, decides to have the whole operation in the middle of the night with commandos dropping on the ships out of the sky. Tell me Gary, what would you have thought it is going on, if you were on that ship. Soldiers dropping out of nowhere, at night and shooting people with something that looks like a gun? The element of surprise and confusion in enemy ranks are valid military tactics. Using those tactics when the “enemy” is civilians and you want to minimize all casualties, is plain STUPID.

Night time allows for greater tactical choices for the commandoes landing on the deck. In general the commandoes are going to have better night vision capabilities than the targets will. Were I on the ship I would have known exactly what’s going on. Do you think the people on the ship are stupid?
They hoped for and prepared for just this eventuality. No I think you do not give the folks on the ship enough credit at all. The Israelis have a very good intel capability and knew what was going to happen which is why they were prepared with multiple cameras to record the ensuing events.

It is tragic that people died and I think that if better tactics had been used that could have been avoided, but who knows? we weren’t there.

The last time I checked Israel voluntarily gave up Gaza and turned over control to the Palestinans. The Palestinan terrorist organisations then proceeded to fire upwards of 7,000 rockets from Gaza into Israel. How praytell do you get a terrorist organization to stop terrorising?

If the ship’s crew were beating the Israelis with metal poles and other basic weapons it was simply in self defence against the many Israeli soldiers boarding their boats armed with sophisticated firearms. The allegation being made by Israel that their soldiers killed 9 people on board the boat in ‘self defence’ is simply a desperate effort to explain away a serious mistake by the IDF, I just hope they are made to say sorry and admit their mistake!

As for “If it were our Marines, we would be backing them all the way”, I for one would be just as critical if it were our Marines. As some members of this forum know, I certainly do not shy away from criticising HM’s Forces.

This is not supported by fact. The Israelis were armed primarily with paintball guns (very easily identified in the videos) and some had personal sidearms (handguns) for emergencies. Upon landing on the deck the Israelis were attacked with the aforementioned weapons and I can stipulate that metal bars are quite lethal. Additionally the attackers on teh Turkish ship disarmed some of the Israelis and turned the captured pistols on them and wounded at least two of them.

Furthermore there are numerous photo’s of “wrist rocket” type slingshots and those too are quite lethal. It is patently obvious to anyone with a brain and the intellectual honesty to perceive the truth that the people on the ship were looking for a fight. Information has come out that many of them had written out their wills as well. So they knew what they were doing.

The Israelis are attempting to interdict weapons and rockets being smuggled into Gaza. They are using a blockade to accomplish this. Blockades have been used by virtually every maritime nation to accomplish their goals and I am sure I need not relate Great Britains many uses of blockades over the centuries to make my point.

The argument that the convoy was neccessary for humanitarian purposes is false in every way. Egypt has been providing needed supplies from the beginning.

While I certainly do not approve of many things the Israelis have done over the decades they have a fundamental right to protect themselves and their citizens and this was a clear act of provocation on the part of the Turks and Hamas.

It’s the same here in the US as well:confused:

Dexter Holland the vocalist/guitarist of Offspring owns an L-39 and I believe a Lear.

I wonder if Venables most recent victim would agree. More importantly
I wonder if his Soliciter would allow Venables to live in his home.

Venables should ‘have a chance’ says his ex-solicitor:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/8557191.stm