Juan Cole is Intellectually Dishonest, Part [Insert Big Number Here]
Dishonest enough to write this...
Israeli helicopter gunships are said to have destroyed a hospital in the city... eyewitnesses are saying that the Israelis fired a missile at the Dar al-Hikmah hospital, setting it ablaze. Unless the hospital had been turned into a military base, this action (if it occurred) was a war crime.
... without telling his readers that it had obviously been converted into a military base:
After the commandos withdrew, warplanes destroyed the three-storey hospital, which had been evacuated of wounded Hizbollah and civilian patients before the Israeli raid.
And dishonest enough to write this...
The Israelis then carried out air raids in the far north of Lebanon, a Sunni area with no Hizbullah, destroying three bridges, in an ongoing attempt to cripple the national infrastructure.
... (incredibly) without telling his readers that those bridges were bridges being used to get weapons from Syria:
The Israelis say that they did go in there, that they snatched a number of people and according to Lebanese sources, they've taken five prisoners in the helicopters and flown them back to Israel. They've attacked two bridges on the road to Syria - which Israel accuses of supplying Hezbollah with arms - those bridges were knocked out. That comes after three days of attacks on various roads leading from Syria into Lebanon."
Now, you can agree or disagree about whether the bridges are actually being used to transport arms from Syria. But intellectual honesty would require at least passing on the Israeli justification. But that would dilute the propaganda value of Cole's "academic and scholarly" blog, and make it harder for mindless Leftists to repeat his half-truths as - as per his insufferable title - informed comment and opinion.
This is typical Cole - technically true but so devoid of context as to cross into dishonest advocacy: "if the hospital was a military base, it was a war crime" is true - but the hospital was a military base... "Israel destroyed bridges outside of Hezbollah strongholds" is true - but those bridges were being used to supply Hezbollah. For someone who claims to be informed, Cole fails to pass on relevant, pro-Israel information on a pretty consistent basis.
Israeli helicopter gunships are said to have destroyed a hospital in the city... eyewitnesses are saying that the Israelis fired a missile at the Dar al-Hikmah hospital, setting it ablaze. Unless the hospital had been turned into a military base, this action (if it occurred) was a war crime.
... without telling his readers that it had obviously been converted into a military base:
After the commandos withdrew, warplanes destroyed the three-storey hospital, which had been evacuated of wounded Hizbollah and civilian patients before the Israeli raid.
And dishonest enough to write this...
The Israelis then carried out air raids in the far north of Lebanon, a Sunni area with no Hizbullah, destroying three bridges, in an ongoing attempt to cripple the national infrastructure.
... (incredibly) without telling his readers that those bridges were bridges being used to get weapons from Syria:
The Israelis say that they did go in there, that they snatched a number of people and according to Lebanese sources, they've taken five prisoners in the helicopters and flown them back to Israel. They've attacked two bridges on the road to Syria - which Israel accuses of supplying Hezbollah with arms - those bridges were knocked out. That comes after three days of attacks on various roads leading from Syria into Lebanon."
Now, you can agree or disagree about whether the bridges are actually being used to transport arms from Syria. But intellectual honesty would require at least passing on the Israeli justification. But that would dilute the propaganda value of Cole's "academic and scholarly" blog, and make it harder for mindless Leftists to repeat his half-truths as - as per his insufferable title - informed comment and opinion.
This is typical Cole - technically true but so devoid of context as to cross into dishonest advocacy: "if the hospital was a military base, it was a war crime" is true - but the hospital was a military base... "Israel destroyed bridges outside of Hezbollah strongholds" is true - but those bridges were being used to supply Hezbollah. For someone who claims to be informed, Cole fails to pass on relevant, pro-Israel information on a pretty consistent basis.
