The Flotilla Event is just Common Sense

Imagine that you're in a helicopter, hovering over the deck of a ship with a crowd of people waiting below you.  You've been ordered to seize control of, and redirect a flotilla of "aid ships" to a friendly port, and so far the operation has gone smoothly.  But right now you're watching as a crowd of "peace activists" beat your comrades with poles, pipes, chairs, knives, and anything else they can get their hands on, and the only thing you're allowed to fight back with are paintball guns, which do nothing to stop the determined attackers..  You've each been given handguns in case you ever find yourself in life threatening situations, but the order for lethal force hasn't been given and below you can hear your allies on the deck yelling "don't shoot!". 

By now some men have been thrown onto lower decks, and others have jumped into the water to escape the beatings.  Help is coming, but struggling to get aboard, and in the meantime you're outnumbered and unprepared to handle this situation.  You can see weapons being pulled away from some soldiers, and one soldier who was thrown over onto a lower deck isn't moving.  Things are rapidly getting out hand, and if the activists decide to start dragging men away this could turn into a hostage situation.

And now it's your turn to slide down to the deck of the ship.


The scenario above is just a rough example of what happened when IDF commandos tried to seize control of a ship bound for the terrorist controlled Gaza strip.  If given all the information common sense would tell us that the IDF soldiers were defending themselves.  But common sense seems to be something the entire world is short on, especially Turkey:

A day after leading the move to condemn Israel at the United Nations Security Council, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was expected to meet with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday evening in Washington.

During a press conference ahead of the meeting, Davitoglu said he was disappointed with Washington's cautious response to an incident he likened to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

"Psychologically this attack is like 9/11 for Turkey because Turkish citizens were attacked by a state, not by terrorists, with an intention, a clear decision of political leaders of that state," he said.

Attempting to run a blockade organized by a group recognized as a terrorist organization, manned by armed thugs, and trying to deliver supplies directly to a terrorist state is the equivalent of sudden, unprovoked attack that left 3,000 dead, the vast majority of which were civilians.  Ignoring the irony in comparing a terrorist attack to an attempt  to supply terrorists, I think what the Foreign Minister intended to say is that the people of Turkey wanted this to be their 9/11, not that it actually was.  Ideological struggles need support, and what better way to get it then to make your enemy look like a cold blooded killer? 

To be fair there wasn't any way the "activists" were actually trying to run the blockade.  They had to of known that there wasn't any way they were going to get through that blockade, so instead they put some armed fanatics on board who cause an international incident for which, of course, Israel gets blamed.  Mission accomplished:

There have been strong reactions to the Gaza flotilla raid of 31 May 2010, both in Israel and in the Palestinian territories, as well as internationally. Official responses have varied from deep concern over the loss of life to strong condemnations. In a carefully worded statement, Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon condemned the violence, called for "a full investigation to determine exactly how this bloodshed took place" and urged Israel to "provide a full explanation." Many countries called for an international investigation. Unofficial responses included civilian protests against Israeli action following reports of the deaths aboard the MV Mavi Marmara.

Twenty European countries condemned or protested Israeli actions: Albania, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Israel was widely condemned in the Arab world.
Eleven Asian countries condemned Israeli actions: China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Malaysia, Maldives, North Korea, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan. Twelve South American countries condemned Israeli actions: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua (which also suspended diplomatic relations with Israel in protest), Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Israel was also condemned by Turkey (which recalled its envoy), Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States.

Nineteen countries expressed regret over loss of life: Israel, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Canada, Czech Republic, Croatia, Egypt, Estonia, Greece, the Holy See, India, Ireland, Japan, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, United States and Uruguay.

So far only the Netherlands has expressed support for Israel.

 I won't attempt to make this a Conservative vs Liberal argument because one of the first people to ask my opinion and then agree with me on this issue was a very liberal friend of mine.  I like to view this more as a common sense argument.  The men on these ships were armed, and attacked the IDF soldiers.  They were there to cause trouble knowing full well that Israel won't look good in a "Israeli soldiers kill peace activists trying to deliver supplies to poverty stricken Gaza strip." news article.

Of course that begs the question of why the media hasn't gotten around to asking the very obvious question of why "peace activists" and "humanitarians" were armed and so eager to assault IDF soldiers  If the IDF intended to massacre these people and went in guns blazing there wouldn't of been a struggle.  There wouldn't of been any injured IDF soldiers, let alone the ten that were.  There would of been a whole lot of dead activists and a whole lot of justifiable anger at Israel over a massacre.  In fact if the media were doing its job there would of been a lot more questions, like "How did an IDF soldier get shot?"  "Why were some IDF soldiers stabbed?"  "How did this soldier get such a serious head wound?"


There also wouldn't of been videos like these:








The videos don't show the IDF going in using lethal force, in fact the first video clearly shows several paintball guns near the end.  What the videos do show is soldiers being attacked and beaten with a variety of weapons the second they touch the deck.  The beatings themselves bring us back to Common Sense.  At several points we see IDF soldiers go down  and being surrounded by multiple people who proceed to beat them with pipes.  Common Sense should immediately kick in and tell us that these people are in serious danger, and if these beatings continue they may very well die.  And of course the logical response to that should be:  "Defend yourself at all costs."  Which brings us right back to the question of why there is any outrage at all over this event.  It seems to me that world leaders could of spent 10 minutes on youtube and walked away with the bare minimum impression that this wasn't entirely Israel's fault as Turkey wants us to believe.

Oh and in case you needed any more proof that these people were fanatics and not peace activists, watch this last short video filmed before the flotilla met IDF soldiers:





Edit:  Because I just have to remind you that Ron Paul and Common Sense aren't two things that go together.  Odd that the guy who wants to not get involved is so quick to get involved when it's Israel.