no matter how it's used or by whom (or not at all), you can't just go ahead and tell everyone what warring parties are doing, because you don't
know what's useful and what isn't.
I disagree. Look at it this way...
You're a humanitarian aid worker, operating in a warzone. You need to know where the action is, in order to effectively deploy your resources.
It's not sensible to send a bunch of ambulances and helicopters for evacuation of non-combatants to an area where there's no fighting.
The information provided by the UN was vital (I think) to the organization of rescue, evacuation, and humanitarian aid relief efforts. The IDF is
like a hurricane in this case, where they go, destruction and misery follow, so the UN needs to acquire intel on IDF movements to pass on to its
relief workers, for the same reason disaster relief groups keep a close eye on the movements of storms.
I would suggest that they operate on a more closed system, regulated by permissions, so that only certain people could access the information, but
that might not work, for one important reason - the information provided by the UN was perhaps most useful to one group of people - refugees fleeing
the fighting. They need to know if the IDF is bearing down on their area, so they can get their kids, their belongings, and get the Hell out.
This doesn't do a lot of good to people without internet access, and presumably there are other ways for vulnerable people to get alerts, so maybe
this is a possibility in the future..I don't know.
this is a principal issue: if non-combatants do things that make one side's job easier, they're abusing their status, undermining it in the
You're right, if non-combatants do things that make one side's job easier, they've abused their position of neutrality, and crapped all over the
principle of neutrality itself. But that drags us back to my initial question - what proof do we have that the UN's information helped the guerillas
in any way, shape, or form?
It's an assumption on your part, to say that news about IDF movements coming from the UN was used for tactical purposes by the guerillas. It's my
opinion that Hezbollah's powerful international allies and deep roots in the communities affected provided more intelligence than was required, and
thus the actions of the UN were of no help at all.
[edit on 27-8-2006 by WyrdeOne]