Great piece on the Daily Kos, here is part of it:
During war the prefered spin given is the “human shield” one. This is great propaganda because it does two things at once. It excuses the criminal behavior of the perpetrator while at the same time demonizing the enemy. The spin that “we were receiving fire from that area,” is OK, but not as good. Then there is the more general spin that “we are sorry for civilian all deaths, but they are unavoidable in wars” or the similar “We do all we can do avoid all civilian deaths, but it’s impossible in war.”
The killers of civilians will further spin the crimes by claiming that the alleged “human shields” users are the only ones responsible. They may even threaten to bring up charges to the UN against the “human shield” abusers. Of course there is never a follow through on that propaganda--but it’s repeated by the media, and it works regardless of facts.
Just yesterday this spin was again used by the Israelis. Since no Hamas body were found among the 43 children and local residents killed at the UN school compound in Jabaliya, the original spin is now changed. The wanted investigation by the Israelis is quickly forgotten, and now they are refusing any international review of this massacre. In Tel Aviv, Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, said Israel had already held an "initial investigation" which found that troops had returned fire from the UN building. Self investigations with no independent witnesses are an absurdity.
Why would the Israelis retract their threats to bring a complaint to the UN regarding Hamas using “human shields”? Obviously, no Hamas body found, means a revised spin and a self investigation to whitewash the killings. And the American media will again put on blinders and continue to blame the crude Hamas rockets for all civilian killings, without any regard whatever for the causes of this conflict.
With a biased media repeating the Israeli spin and blaming everything on Hamas, and showing a complete ignorance of the underlying reason for this conflict, it’s easy to see why Americans do not understand this new war. I do think, however, that most American do understand the basic laws of proportionality, and based on results of recent polls, I do have some hope that truth and justice in that conflict can lead to peace.
Debunking the I P human shield myth