February 28, 2007
Palestinian Crowd Control
Liveleak.com provides the following disturbing but intriguing video of an alleged Hamas sniper dispersing a group of Fatah gunmen with one well-place shot.
Content warning for... well, you'll see at the 27-second mark.
Early in the clip, we see a group of gunmen, which the person who posted this video clip thinks belong to the Palestinian Fatah party, which, depending on your point of view and perhaps which branch of Fatah you are talking about, may be viewed as a legitimate part of the Palestinian government, or as a terrorist organization. You'll note that all or most of the gunmen are wearing what can loosely be defined as a uniform, of sorts: dark, short-sleeved shorts, long black pants, various kinds of military web gear, and AK-pattern rifles.
Based upon the way they are clustered, it seems evident that they have little or no military training. A burst from a machine gun or an RPG strike could easily decimate the tightly-bunched group of at least six gunmen, not to mention the none-too bright bystanders only feet behind them. If this is representative of how Palestinian civilians typically observe urban combat, the Israeli Defense Forces deserve the Nobel Peace Prize every year for not killing thousands of them when engaging legitimate Palestinian military targets.
At the 26-second mark, the lead gunman steps away from the cover of the wall and raises his rifle to fire. A split second later, he squeezes off a shot as his last mortal act before collapsing from a single shot to the central nervous system a split second later.
Several bystanders then rush in with several of the other gunmen to drag the man who has just be shot out of the line of fire, some with hands raised. the group of gunmen and their supporters then sage a rapid retreat with the body of their martyr. It wasn't pretty, but a single shot ended this particular skirmish before it actually began.
Check out "palywood". This bunching of civilians behind thugs is fairly common. I would also guess that this is staged and the guy is fine. If there really was a sniper, the rest of the thugs wouldnt run to the open to get this guy or stand around in the open waiving in the ambulance.
Posted by: Rey at February 28, 2007 11:00 PMAnother indication of lack of proper military training is none of the men returned fire. Maybe this is just something Jareheads do - but I would have been putting rounds into the sniper until either he or I was dead. Since I am keying this you can believe that the guy that walked away was always me!
An old exJarehaed
Nam 1967+1968
Rey
Based upon the way the guy dropped, and the telltale fluid trail which appears when he is dragged off, I'd say it looks pretty real to me.
Unless the Pallywood guys are planting FX squibs of red fluid to imitate blood, that is.
"lack of proper military training" I'm no military expert but for me, using a corner that has a radius seems to not be such a good idea. You are left open at so many tangent points.
Also, I think the guy is toast. He went down like a sack o' tubers and as the commenter mentioned above, he had a leakage problem.
Posted by: markm at March 1, 2007 06:45 AMIt's a shame when the only reactions I have after seeing a man shot down is "What a bunch of drama queens."
They really dig on the theatrics over there, don't they? It's like the level of grief they feel isn't so much what they feel, but based on the opinions of their audience.
"Wow, check out Jalil. Clearly he is the most bereaved, for he has fallen to his knees and beseeching the heavens for answers."
"I disagree, Mehmet. Have a look at Abdul. He is over there before the cameras, punching himself in the dingdong and cursing the jews."
I guess it's just different. Most Americans handle their grief with a little more dignity. Most.
Posted by: paully at March 1, 2007 07:20 AMRed on Red. If the sniper was IDF, I'm sure we would have already heard about this 'war crime' in the MSM.
Posted by: BohicaTwentyTwo at March 1, 2007 08:24 AMExcellent blog you have here, ya Rebel Blue-Belly. Glad I ran across it. Definitely will be added to my favorites list.
Regards,
Posted by: Clay at March 1, 2007 09:47 AM"Most Americans handle their grief with a little more dignity."
paully, last time I saw that much drama was at Coretta King's funeral.
Posted by: Clay at March 1, 2007 10:17 AMHeh, scorpions in a bottle.
Posted by: Purple Avenger at March 2, 2007 03:57 AM
