The Lidless Eye

Most everyone on the blogosphere has probably followed the
Glenn
Reynolds link to a
Mosul
chaplain's blog. More than 20 people, including US military and civilian
personnel, were killed in
a mortar attack on a base mess tent in Mosul. Chaplain Lewis was at
the site. His narrative of the followup attack on the wounded and the medical
personnel who responded stood out.

Regardless of what some may say, these are not stupid people. Any attack
with casualties will naturally mean that eventually a very large number of
care givers will be concentrated in one location. They took full advantage of
that. In the middle of the mayhem the first mortar round hit about 100 to 200
meters away. Everyone started shouting to get the wounded into the hospital
which is solid concrete and much safer than being in the open. Soon, the
next mortar hit quite a bit closer than the first as they "walked" their
rounds toward their intended target...us. Everyone began to rush toward
the building. I stood at the door shoving as many people inside as I could.
Just before heading in myself, the last one hit directly on top of the
hospital. I was standing next to the building so was shielded from any flying
shrapnel. In fact, the building, being built as a bunker took the hit with
little effect. However, I couldn't have been more than 10 to 15 meters from
the point of impact and brother did I feel the shock. That'll wake you up! I
rushed inside to find doctors and nurses draped over patients, others on the
floor or under something. I ducked low and quickly moved as far inside as I
could. After a few tense moments people began to move around again and the
business of patching bodies and healing minds continued in earnest.

This suggests that the target was under observation so either the first
firing team, or a second enemy mortar team tasked with a followup attack could
adjust their fire until they hit the hospital. It will be interesting to see
whether the enemy fire originated from a populated area, preventing
counterbattery. Many American bases are routinely patrolled by RPVs that run a
circuit around possible firing positions. Mortar or rocket positions in the open
would be easily detected. But there is no data and it would be useless to
speculate on what actually happened. However, it is safe to say that the attack
demonstrates assymetrical warfare in action. The enemy chose the weakest point
he could find to attack; exploited the known limitations of the American
response; and understood that he was to all intents and purposes exempted from
the condemnation attendant to attacking the wounded and medical personnel. The
chaplain and the medical personnel knew this and did not mill around expecting
the Geneva Convention to protect them from those who have never heard of it,
except as it applies to their own convenience. They knew the true face of the
enemy; a face which bore no resemblance to the heroic countenance often
presented by the media to the world.

Of the first three factors, the advantage of choosing the weakest point of
attack has been a combatant's right from time immemorial. That is a purely
military condition. But the enemy ability to exploit the limits of American
response and attack medical personnel with public relations impunity are
examples of military advantages that arise from political restraints. To the
extent the blogosphere can dispel the propaganda cover willingly provided by the
Left, people on the home front can help the soldiers in the field. It is
necessary to link the war criminal behavior of the enemy with the studied
blindness of 'sophisticates' towards their most heinous crimes. They are
twinned; with the former made possible by the latter. The

Daily Telegraph describes how some European agencies actually refuse to look
at mass grave sites to avoid being party to the punishment of war criminals.

Lack of European experts has held up the excavation of mass graves in Iraq,
according to an American human rights lawyer working on the investigation.
Greg Kehoe said the experts were not joining in because evidence might be used
to sentence Saddam Hussein to death. ...

Capital punishment is not permitted within the European Union which
discourages its use elsewhere. EU countries also routinely refuse to extradite
people to the United States and other countries unless they receive guarantees
that detainees will not be executed. The Iraqi Special Tribunal has identified
a further nine mass graves to be examined for evidence of the former Saddam
regime's crimes against humanity. Human rights groups estimate that 300,000
people were killed. Mr Kehoe, who spent five years investigating mass graves
in Bosnia for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia,
said he wanted to have collected far more evidence by now, and cited the delay
as one reason why the IST has yet to issue formal charges against Saddam and
11 other former regime leaders.

Enemy mortar teams lying in wait to attack doctors are one aspect of a coin
which features the blind eye of some media and 'progressive' institutions on the
other.
Mark Glaser observed that:

For way too long, it has been the mainstream media (MSM) that's played God
with the American public, telling everyone what's news and what's not, what to
play up and what to downplay. But 2004 was the year the power started
shifting, that the Little People, if you will, started to tell the gods of
media what the public really wanted.

They can start by looking at the mass casualty station in Mosul and then
glancing down at their hands.