Real Extermination

As I stated in another comment, I think it takes a European to understand the concept of real extermination.

I was speaking about this very subject with a Palestinian friend this weekend. He asked me about the Russian invasion of Georgia, since I'm from the area and understand the mindsets better.

We spoke about it at length, and I mentioned to him that in the first day or war in Georgia, 1500 people died, and those are the ones that were counted! In the 2006 Lebanon War, 1000 people died in 30 days, and that was considered a catastrophe, an atrocity, a massacre! Who has even mentioned such a thing with regards to Russia and Georgia? One apartment building in Qana is bombed, and it's considered a massacre. Russia has been rocketing entire cities, for days. So has Georgia. Where is the Arab League denouncing the loss of civilian life? Where is the outrage from [Name] and [Name], demonstrating their supposed conviction that each life is equal.

One Palestinian is shot in the foot with a rubber bullet, resulting in no serious injury, and they write a post about it! 1500 human beings are murdered in a rain of rockets, and Kabob does not even make a brief mention of this. So much for "all life is equal", eh [Name]?

Both Russia and Georgia are using multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) against civilian cities! We're not talking precision IAF F-16 strikes with laser guided bombs.

They're using the unguided Katyusha rocket that Hezbollah loves, except that the Russian and Georgians are not firing 1 or 10 of them at a time; they are firing 1,000 at one time, 10,000. Saturation artillery bombardment is a key feature of Soviet combat orthodoxy. No one even bothers to ask who they are shooting at. If they don't use X amount of rockets every day they will be accused of not performing their duties.

I gave him an analogy: if a Russian general had to report to his superiors that in a particular theatre, only 1500 people had died, he would be sent to Siberia, to dig for gold, in permafrost, with his bare hands.

It would be assumed that he is a coward who is refusing to fight the war. It doesn't really matter if it's 1500 Russian soldiers who died or 1500 enemy soldiers who died. The fact that only 1500 died means there is no action on the battlefield! It's simple dereliction of duty!

On the other hand, we have Hamas fighting Palestinian clans in Gaza, killing 4 people there and 6 people there, and that is considered a "war"?

In WWII, the Russians wouldn't even consider themselves "engaged" with the enemy until 10,000 soldiers were fertilizing the fields. How else are you supposed to get a sense of the battlefield? You send a few thousand here, a few thousand there, and you see where they start dying. Then you know where the enemy is.

So, naturally, Europeans are very confused when Palestinians claim "genocide" and "massacre". 10 people is not a massacre. 100 people is not a massacre. 10,000 people... you're getting warmer, but only within a 48 hour period. 25,000, 50,000... now you're talking real numbers.

To make a long story short, I think we found where the perspectives diverge. When Europeans think of war, they think of extermination: 10,000 killed from a nation of 50,000,000 means 49,990,000 left to go.

Arabs don't think in terms of extermination, generally speaking; they think in terms of blood. You kill one person, you've started a war with their entire clan that is obligated to avenge their blood.

But that entire clan might only be 6,000 men. There is not a national mentality that says the entire nation must fight to the death. There is no concept of total war.

Real genocide is practically unheard of, and when it actually happens (such as in Iraq, Syria or Jordan), it is so swift, so brutal, that no one in the blood line is left alive to avenge. Individual clans looking to avenge "blood for blood" are not very efficient at fighting nation states with faceless armies of soldiers.