This is the same crap excuses that our government used after Katerina devastated the poor in New Orleans.
Israel has bombed the village of Qana and justifies the killing of the over 60 of the villages
'desperately poor hardscrabble farmers including the aged and infirm and children ' and excuse this 'collateral civilian causalties' because they dropped pamphlets demanding that all civilians leave.
How can poor people leave when the infrastructure like roads and bridges have been destroyed. How can they leave when there isn't any public transportation available. Even if there was public transportation available how can the poor afford to pay for it.
The same thing happened in New Orleans when those with cars left and the poor stayed behind to be subjected to the Super
Dome or the convention center. So many of the poor and infirmed were just left to die.
It seems to always be the poor who suffer the most when tragedy hits a region. It doesn't matter if the tragedy is from Mother Nature or human on human war. It's the poor that suffers. It's the poor who do the best they can to seek protection against the bombs by taking refuge in a building hoping beyond hope to live another day.
Even in the good times it is the poor who don't get the breaks. It is the poor who are at the mercy of someone else.
This is why I'm a liberal. I want to see the poor improve their lot in life. I want to see the poor get a fair chance at a better life. I want to see them get a better education. I want to see social safety nets to help those who fall into poverty. I don't care if these safety nets are sometimes abused. I want to see the elderly get a drugs to save their lives at a reasonable price. I want to see medical care for all Americans. I want to see all students get a shot at a college education even if they don't have the money. It doesn't do them any good to come out of college with enormous debts. I want to see us move away from fossil fuels and quit making the oil companies richer than most of the nations of the world.
This is why I'm sick of Bush's 'compassionate conversatism'. He is not compassionate. He is not even following the golden rule. He is only concerned about the people who got him there. And we all know who got him there. These are not the people who need help.
It still goes on when in the middle of the night the house ties minimum wage increases to give rich spoiled kids more money. This needs to stop.
[Update] This was a diary about helping those of us who are poor. Not about Hezbollah using poor people as shields or poor Israel having no choices left but to level an entire village. I only used what happened in Qana as a jumping off point for my reasons for being liberal. I think about the horror of being in a basement because I can't leave. Maybe the Hezbollah made me go down there. I kind of think not. It's more likely the dead villagers found themself doing their best to live another day. Just like the poor of New Orleans who were found on top of their roof hoping to live another day. Or those who went to the Super Dome or convention center -- just trying to live another day. If you've never found yourself in the position were almost all choices are out of your reach then count yourself lucky. 40 million Americans are living below the poverty level. I'm thankful I'm not one of them. I'm also willing to give my taxes to social safety nets and I don't care if some of those helped don't need it. Most of those helped do need it.