The Long-Standing Practice Of Israeli Soldiers Using Palestinian Civilians As Human Shields

Forty Million People Starve To Death.

1958 – 1960.
Chinese leader Chairman Mao decided to compete with the west and out-produce the British steel industry.
Farmers were told to ignore agriculture and concentrate on steel production instead.
A food shortage saw nearly 40 million people starve to death.

Pharaoh Thutmose 111 Of Egypt, 1479 – 1425 BC.

Responsible for the obelisk known as Cleopatra’s Needle on the bank of the Thames, Thutmose 111 never lost a battle in 18 summer campaigns.
He was one of the first rulers to understand supply lines and sea power.
Having inherited the throne of Egypt aged seven, he spent the first two decades as co-regent with his father’s wife.

When she died, he conquered lands in Palestine, Syria, Nubia and Mesopotamia.
It was Thutmose 111 who established Egypt as a major power in the eastern Mediterranean and his reign was a golden era of temple building and great riches (and he was humane in his treatment of the vanquished).
He died aged 61.

The Israeli Killing And Maiming Of Palestinian Children.

The Israeli illegal-occupation army and paramilitary Jewish settlers have killed 545 Palestinian children and minors since the outbreak of the al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000.
Among these victims, 266 children were 14 or younger while the ages of the remaining 279 ranged from 15 to 18.
Moreover, as many as 20,000 Palestinian children were injured, with nearly 1,500 sustaining life-long disabilities.
The total number of Palestinians killed by Israel during the current Intifada is around 2,700, the vast majority of them civilians.
( Khalid Amayreh, 13.04.2004 )  ..  aljazeera.com

Charlemagne, 742 – 814.

Charles the Great, King of the Franks, ruled a European empire based mainly around France, Germany and parts of Italy.
Although he could not write, he spoke Teutonic, Latin and Greek.

He was 6ft 4in, a monstrous height for the period, which has since been confirmed by measurement of his skeleton.
Oddly, his father was known as Pepin the Short and was around 5ft tall.

Charlemagne’s first campaign came at the age of 27, when the Pope sought his aid in repelling the Lombards of Italy.
Charlemagne smashed them in the field and took the crown of Lombardy as his own.
From his capital of Aachen in modern-day Germany, he went on to fight 53 campaigns, most of which he led himself.

He defended a Christian Europe from Muslim Saracens and pagan Saxons, often beheading thousands in a single day.
He died aged 72 from a fever.

The Spartacus Revolt Shows Rome Was Rotten To The Core.

He was the man who had the guts to raise the standard of revolt against the odius servitude that sustained the Roman economy.
He gave hope to the underdogs.
To the gladiators, the captives and criminals obliged to kill each other for the pleasure of spectators, he gave freedom.

He has been identified as one of the world’s first violent left wing revolutionaries.
Most Romans viewed Spartacus as a monster, a demon who almost destroyed the republic.
It was 73 BC when the ex-soldier and thief led a breakout from a gladiator’s training school.

He had only 70 accomplices, armed with no more than knives and skewers.
But in just one year he had accumulated an army of 70,000, and what terrified the Romans was the treachery of those who flocked to his banner.
It was the cooks, the cleaners, the housemaids, the labourers, the little-regarded, who turned against their masters in a rejection of the Roman system.

They defeated the armies of two praetors, then they humiliated two consular armies.
Romans started to fear that Spartacus intended to sack Rome itself.
The Spartacus revolt shows Rome was rotten to the core.

The Long-Standing Practice Of Israeli Soldiers Using Palestinian Civilians As Human Shields.

The Israeli high court ruled that the army’s long-standing practice of using Palestinian civilians as human shields in combat is illegal under international law.
The case was brought more than three years ago by human rights organisations that said the army routinely forced Palestinian civilians into dangerous situations as a means to protect soldiers.

Some of the most common methods were to force Palestinians into buildings to see if they were booby-trapped, or to enter the hideouts of wanted men and tell them to surrender.
Soldiers also forced civilians to stand in front of them when on patrol.

At least one human shield was killed, and others have been wounded.
Seven Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups told the court the use of civilians in any capacity in military operations breached the Geneva conventions.
( Chris McGreal, 07.10.2005 )  ..  theguardian.com

We Shot Them Like Dogs.

The Creek War, 1813-1814, also known as the Red Stick War, was an inter-tribal conflict among Creek Indian factions.
The war also engaged U.S. militias, along with the British and Spanish, who backed the Indians to help keep Americans from encroaching on their interests.

Early Creek victories inspired General Andrew Jackson to retaliate with 2,500 men, mostly Tennessee militia, in early November 1814.
To avenge the Creek-led massacre at Fort Mims, Jackson and his men slaughtered 186 Creeks at Tallushatchee.

“We shot them like dogs!” said Davy Crockett.
In desperation, Mvskoke Creek women killed their children so they would not see the soldiers butcher them.

Israel Used Cluster Bombs On Lebanon.

Cluster bombs are not illegal, but many anti-war groups say they should be.
Israel used the weapons against Hezbollah.
As a result, the U.N. Mine Advisory Group says, many areas in south Lebanon are littered with thousands of unexploded “bomblets.”
Although southern Lebanon is largely quiet now after the war between Israel and Hezbollah, it’s still a dangerous place.
United Nations experts say the area is littered with unexploded ordnance that includes cluster bombs dropped by the Israeli air force.
Since the cease-fire started, more than 20 civilians have been injured in the explosions of bombs and shells left on the battlefield.
( Jamie Tarabay, 24.08.2006 )  ..  npr.org