re: #141 J.S.

I believe it is probably important to get the Hamas point of view as long as everyone understands that is what it is … the Hamas point of view. That is the only way one might understand how a group like Hamas is able to gain the following it does. I also know from looking at the various bibliographies and suggested reading lists at the War College that people are expected to get a wide variety of information from a broad spectrum of viewpoints. That is a good thing. The notion that our people are not getting information about radical Islam or the “right” information about radical Islam is nuts. “right” in whose perspective? From what I see, all sorts of different perspectives are available and expected to be absorbed.

Just because the War College publishes a paper, it doesn’t mean that information is the opinion of the War College or the War College agrees with it. It means they are presenting all sorts of information from all sorts of viewpoints. That her paper was even published tends to invalidate her whining.

“a new publication by Army War College research professor Sherifa Zuhur on Hamas and Israel that informs readers that Hamas has been misunderstood due to the misreporting by ‘Israeli and Western sources that villainize the group.’”

That would be an opinion presented in the paper. It doesn’t mean that is the opinion of the college. I believe most of the officers reading that paper will understand it for what it is. But it does serve a purpose, it reminds us to be careful about what we read. Her piece is likely to be just as biased in one direction as she accuses Western media of being in the opposite.

Regardless of one’s intentions or doctrines or words, actions say more. Shooting thousands of rockets over time into civilian areas at random “says” more than any doctrine. It says Hamas are terrorists regardless of what they say. Their actions override their words.