August 28, 2006
Eyeless in Gaza
SOUTHERN ISRAEL, NEAR GAZA – All eyes turned from Gaza to Lebanon as Israel fought a hot war with Hezbollah across its northern border. Before the Lebanon war broke out, the fighting in and around Gaza was the big story in Israel. But once the media coverage ended it stayed ended, even after foreign correspondents were free to pick up where they left off. Perhaps the kidnapping of two Fox News journalists by the latest in a long line of Palestinian terrorist groups -- the Holy Jihad Brigades -- all but guaranteed reporters wouldn’t go back.
Even though I’ve been in Israel for a couple of weeks, I still didn’t know any more about what’s going on down there than people who have never been here before. News from Israel’s other rocket war barely trickles up to Tel Aviv. So I hopped in my rental car and drove down to Mishav Klahim, just east of Netivot and 20 kilometers from Gaza, to meet Shika Frista who promised to show me what’s going on.
I missed a turn on the coastal road when I was supposed to veer left to avoid driving straight into Gaza. Suddenly mine was the only car on the road. An aerial surveillance balloon hovered in the air up ahead. It looked just like the one I saw flying on the border with Lebanon while Hezbollah fired barrages of Katyusha rockets into Israeli cities.
The war of the rockets was supposed to be over. But I was back in it.
The left turn I needed to take was behind me. But I kept driving, slowly, so I could see what was ahead. I rolled down the window and listened for sounds of war. All was quiet, oppressively hot, and still.
The road dead-ends at the Erez Crossing Point. No one was going in or out of Gaza that day. It looked like no one was even there working or watching, like the place had been abandoned and left to itself.
I took a quick picture…
…then turned the car around and realized I had made a mistake. Any Israeli military personnel who watched me drive up, take a quick picture, and leave right away would have good reason to be suspicious and even arrest me. But no cars followed in the rear view mirror.
The map led me straight to Shika Frista’s house on his Moshav. We sat at little table under the shade of palm trees next to his swimming pool.
Shika drank a glass of red wine.
It was too hot for wine, so I asked for a beer. The air outside is drier in the south, though, not humid and heavy like it is in Tel Aviv.
“I can hear the Qassam rockets fired at us from Gaza,” he said and gestured to the farmland beyond. “They shake the windows of my house when they hit.”
Israel ended up with two rocket wars at the same time. One in the north, and one in the south. Unlike Hezbollah’s arsenal, Qassam rockets aren’t made in Iran. They’re made in Gaza itself. They’re smaller, though, than Katyushas. The south has not been evacuated like the north was, even though people still occasionally are killed by the rockets.
“How often does Hamas fire rockets?” I said.
“Hamas doesn’t shoot them,” he said. “Islamic Jihad shoots them.”
“How close to your house has a Qassam hit?” I said.
“About…four or five kilometers away,” he said.
“And you can hear them here,” I said, “even from that far away?”
“Oh,” he said. “Of course.”
We finished our drinks and drove toward Gaza in his truck.
“Ariel Sharon’s farm is near here, right?” I said.
“Yeah,” he said. “A Qassam landed twenty meters from his wife’s grave on the family property.”
We passed Sharon’s farm and in minutes reached the city of Sderot.
“Lots of Qassams hit this city,” Shika said. “Most people killed by the Qassams live here.”
“How many rockets are hitting the city right now?” I said.
“Not as many today,” he said. “Because of the war in Lebanon.”
“What does Lebanon have to do with it?” I said.
“All the journalists forgot about us during the Lebanon war. So the terrorists are waiting for the media to come back before firing rockets again. They don’t want to waste those they have.”
“That can’t be the only reason,” I said. “The IDF has been active in Gaza this entire time. Surely that has something to do with it.”
“Yes,” he said. “Also because of the IDF.”
Later two more Israelis repeated what Shika said about Hamas and Islamic Jihad cooling their rocket launchers while the media’s attention was elsewhere. I haven’t heard any official confirmation from either side that it’s true.
“How long do people here have from the time they hear an air raid siren until the rockets land?” I said.
“About 20 seconds,” he said.
We reached a small IDF base near the Israeli town of Nir Am where Shika’s friend Zvika waited for us.
The parking lot was shielded by concrete bomb-blast walls.
A civilian overlook tower was erected next to the military compound. It was not shielded by walls of any kind. But Gaza was still a comfortable distance away. No sniper could possibly shoot us from the other side of the vast and eerily empty no-man’s wasteland that lay between the de-facto end of Israel and the beginning of Gaza.
An aerial surveillance balloon flew right over our heads.
Zvika knew the area well. Shika had asked him to meet us so he could tell me what we were looking at.
“Over there,” Zvika said, “is the town of Beit Hanun.”
Beit Hanun was far, and I had to zoom my camera lens all the way out to take a picture.
“You see those towers off in the distance,” Zvika said. “With the sun shining on them? Those are apartment buildings in Gaza City that Arafat built for members of Fatah.”
“Where are those smokestacks in the distance off to the right?” I said.
“That’s Ashkelon,” Zvika said. “Islamic Jihad fires Qassam rockets at that city all the time.”
“Is this overlook point always open to the public?” I said. It felt strange just driving up to an IDF base, even if it was just a small one, and hanging out right next to it without having to even say hi to a soldier guarding the road.
“Very few civilians know about this place,” Zvika said. “Only the people who live nearby ever come here.”
“Is this interesting to you?” I said. “Or is it normal?”
“It is normal,” he said.
“It is interesting for me,” Shika said. “It has been three years since I saw anything like this.”
“There used to be plantations just on the other side of the fence,” Zvika said. “But the IDF uprooted them because Qassams were being launched from there. Now they have to fire Qassams from the buildings farther away.”
“If they fire a rocket you will see it,” Shika said.
“Will we see a trail of smoke?” I said.
“Oh yes,” Zvika said and raised his eyebrows. “You will see the smoke.”
Just then several IDF soldiers in the base below shouted something in Hebrew and ran to one of the tanks.
Several men jumped in, cranked up the tank’s engine, and roared with surprising speed into the field toward Gaza in front of the overlook tower.
I braced myself for the thunderous racket of combat or a possible incoming or over flying Qassam. Nothing happened. The Gaza area was tense and sporadically violent, but the conflict was significantly dialed down compared with the just-ended open war against Hezbollah in the north.
It was time to move on. Shika and Zvika had much more to show me.
Zvika hopped in his van. Shika and I climbed into the truck and followed Zvika as he drove south down the length of the Gaza Strip.
“You see that dirt road on the other side of the trees next to this one?” Shika said.
I did, and I took a picture of it.
“Every day a machine goes over it and smoothes it out,” he said. “Trackers, mostly Bedouin, search the dirt every day for fresh footprints. They can tell when someone has come out of Gaza and which direction he’s going. If you put one foot on that road right now you will be arrested.”
“I’m partly relieved that I can’t go into Gaza right now,” I said. I’m being prevented from going into Gaza for a variety of security, logistical, and bureaucratic reasons beyond my control. “But I also partly wish that I could.”
“The beach in Gaza is amazing,” Shika had told me earlier. “It is virgin. You wouldn’t believe it.”
“You’ve been there?” I said.
“Of course,” he said. “We used to go there and eat in the restaurants.”
“When?” I said.
“In the early 80s,” he said.
“It was friendly then?” I said.
“Yeah,” he said. “Israel ruled there. The Palestinians were friendly, I think they miss that period. They had money, they could walk freely.”
We continued following Zvika in his van to the abandoned Karni Terminal.
“That’s Gaza, man,” Shika said. “Do you want to go inside?”
“Yes and no,” I said. “Not without the army, though. If you and I go in there right now, we’re both in trouble.”
“Me more than you,” Shika said.
We were much closer to Gaza this time than we were at the overlook tower. Buildings inside the strip loomed just over the tops of concrete bomb-blast and sniper-fire walls.
“We are probably over some tunnels right now,” Shika said. “It is very dangerous and we have to be careful.”
The Karni Terminal was a major crossing point for people and goods into and out of Gaza before the place went completely to hell. Today it is abandoned.
The spooky silence and emptiness only hinted at the violence and anarchy being walled off on the other side after the Israeli withdrawal.
It wasn’t a safe place to linger. So we moved along and headed further south without getting out of our vehicles.
“The last three prime ministers want peace,” Shika said. “They go out of Lebanon, they go out of Gaza. And look what [Arab terrorists] continue to do.”
“Do you think it was right to leave Gaza?” I said.
“Yeah,” he said. “Of course.”
“Even though there are rocket attacks?” I said.
“Yeah,” he said. “This is occupied land. They always have excuses to do what they do. Do you know what’s going on in Gaza now?”
“No,” I said. “I don’t.”
“Whew,” he said. “You can’t imagine.”
“What do you know about it?” I said.
“Everybody has weapons,” he said. “The strongest is the ruler. It is not like in Ramallah.”
Smoke rose from Gaza off to the right.
“You see that fire?” Shika said. “It is from missiles. Israel is shooting at where the terrorists hide.”
Vicious dogs chased the truck and ran right alongside it, furiously barking, snarling, and threatening to lunge at us.
The only thing less dodgy about this environment than the war zone on the northern border is that I couldn’t hear or see live explosions.
I did, however, see a tank moving fast among some trees.
Once again I braced myself for the unspeakably loud explosions of combat. Once again, though, the IDF just seemed to be moving its forces around. There was no fighting at that particular time on that particular day.
We kept driving and passed by more tanks.
“They are getting ready to go into Gaza,” Shika said.
Some of the tanks looked idle, though. Notice in the photo below that a cover of some sort has been placed over the barrel.
“Roll down the window,” I said. “I want to talk to these guys.”
Shika rolled down the window and shouted at an IDF officer. The officer shouted back.
“I told him you are a journalist,” Shika said. “And he said It’s about time you got down here.”
“Ask him if I can interview some of the soldiers,” I said.
Shika asked my question in Hebrew.
“No,” the officer said.
“Can I take pictures?” I said and held up my camera.
“No,” the officer said. Then why did he say It’s about time you got down here? He didn’t send us away, but he didn’t exactly roll out the welcome wagon.
It was okay, though. Noah Pollak and I were already wrapping up the week-long process of securing interviews with IDF soldiers and military intelligence officers out of Gaza. We had plans to get that side of the story soon enough from people who know who we are and are willing to talk.
You can drive from Tel Aviv to Gaza in an hour. How strange, then, that there’s a little war down there that no one else in Israel – not even the foreign correspondents – have any interest in or are really even aware of. I felt like I had slid off the edge of the country and through a hole in the dimension into a violent alternate reality. It’s as if the Gaza war does not exist in Israel now even though it’s right down the road.
If a terrorist army fired rockets into Jersey City and the US military deployed tanks and heavy artillery against them, those who live in New York would take a keen interest in the goings-on. So would, I suspect, the people of Britain, France, Israel (!), and Cairo.
People get used to war, though. So do countries. Arabs are firing rockets at Jews? Israelis are sending tanks after their hides? Yeah, well, what else is new. Right?
It’s tourist season now, just one hour north. And the beach is calling.
To be continued…
Post-script: Please hit the Pay Pal link and help pay travel expenses for independent writing. I am not a rich person, and I can’t do this without help.
If you would like to donate money for travel expenses and you don't want to use Pay Pal, you can send a check or money order to:
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Many thanks in advance.
Pretty great stuff. I was hoping you would have some more interview swith villagers in Sderot like women and teenagers, but this was still a great piece.
Posted by: Corinne at August 28, 2006 01:17 AMIt is about time there were some journalists down there covering this --thank you for doing so! (And for doing so, so well).
Posted by: Yael at August 28, 2006 01:45 AMThoroughly enjoyable read. Thanks again! :)
Posted by: Idan Gazit at August 28, 2006 02:58 AMAnother terra incognita revealed to us by Mr. Totten.
Cheers!
Posted by: Rommel at August 28, 2006 06:17 AMAmazing stuff, Totten. Keep reporting.
Posted by: Eric Blair at August 28, 2006 06:44 AMAn interesting commentary. I especially liked the photographs that went with it. You don't get that from the CBC! Thank you.
Posted by: Susan at August 28, 2006 06:58 AMI hope you eventually get to interview a Palestinian.
Posted by: John Hardy at August 28, 2006 07:11 AMIf you want to interview a Palestinian, get a job with Fox News and "convert" to Islam. I hear you get great access that way.
Posted by: Chuck Schulz at August 28, 2006 07:58 AMInteresting piece. I visited Israel and the Sinai with a mixed group of Americans, Europeans, and Israeli Arabs back in the '80s. At that time I was very sympathetic to what the Israeli Arabs were going through. Then came the madness of the Intifadas and I gained a great sympathy for the Israeli side too. It's heartbreaking to see the madness continuing to grow.
One quick note, the idle "tank" with the cover on the barrel is a self-propelled artillery piece. The key details are: the turret is at the rear, the gun is much larger than an MBT's main gun, and (though you couldn't have seen it from the distance) the armor is much, much thinner. It's idle probably because it's in a prepared and secure firing position and has no need to move.
(The Federation of American Scientists (www.fas.org) has great database on military equipment around the world. Here's the entry on the M109 self-propelled howitzer: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m109.htm )
Thanks again for the great detail and personal perspective. May the Israelis and the Palestinians one day find the courage together to reject the mad extremists and choose peace. Before it becomes too late.
Posted by: Dwight in IL at August 28, 2006 08:32 AMThe vehicle with the cover over the end of the gun tube is a M109, 155mm, self-propelled field artillery piece; not a tank. Compare the photos and note the differences.
Posted by: Paul L. Quandt at August 28, 2006 08:33 AMInteresting theory on the lack of missles fired into Israel. If you extend it to its logical conclusion, if the media didn't report on Israel/Palestine, there could be a cold peace?
One could even argue that the media is to blame for the missles!!! ;-)
Posted by: Dan at August 28, 2006 08:38 AMPlease don't post pictures where the numbers on the tanks are visible. The numbers can be used for intelligence gathering purposes.
Posted by: Strabo at August 28, 2006 08:52 AMMichael J. Totten,
You might want to make it clear that the rocket pictured at the top of the post was clearly not fired recently. It is obviously covered in rust especially the exhaust ports. Even if the exterior of the rocket rusted prior to launch, firing the rocket would have scoured the rust off the exhaust ports.
That rocket must have been fired week and more likely months ago.
Posted by: Shannon Love at August 28, 2006 09:08 AMThere's a pair of quotes I find interesting:
"All the journalists forgot about us during the Lebanon war. So the terrorists are waiting for the media to come back before firing rockets again. They don’t want to waste those they have."
and then from and IDF officer:
"“I told him you are a journalist,” Shika said. “And he said It’s about time you got down here.”"
I wonder why he had that sentiment. It sounds to me like they'd be better off if the journalists all stayed away.
Posted by: Ralph Phelan at August 28, 2006 09:18 AMGreat piece, Michael.
Boy, Gaza sure looks like one gigantic prison from the outside, with walls, gun turrets and all.
Contrast that to the pretty red-tile-roofed homes in the various Kibbutzim and cities visited.
Bad Vilbel,
Viewed from the outside? I guess it depends on your perspective. Viewed from the Palestinian side I imagine Israel looks like a prison. There might even be a bit of truth to the comparison. Both sides in this conflict are prisoners of the other, their hands wrapped around each other's throats, too afraid to be the first one to let go.
Posted by: Dougie-Pundit at August 28, 2006 09:59 AMGaza sure looks like one gigantic prison from the outside, with walls, gun turrets and all.
One thing to remember is that Gaza shares a border with Egypt which is also walled off. But nobody complains about that wall. Gee, I wonder why.
Posted by: Carlos at August 28, 2006 10:00 AM"Photobucket.com bandwidth exceeded" is listed for every picture. Too bad I got to the site after an Instalaunch....
Posted by: Doug in NC at August 28, 2006 10:01 AMphotobucket sucks, but good reporting anyway. hope to see the pics later.
Posted by: mario at August 28, 2006 11:30 AMMike,
How do I see the photos? They're all blocked out, not enough bandwidth.
Thanks
Considering how fast Photobucket shut you down for exceeding its bandwidth quota, I sincerely hope you will consider switching to a better service in the future.
I for one, am very interested in seeing the pics.
Posted by: Paul at August 28, 2006 12:16 PMI'm so selfish. I think I'm more angry at Photobucket than I am at Islamic Jihad today.
Posted by: Josh Scholar at August 28, 2006 01:48 PMDo you have a "pro" account? They're claiming unmetered bandwidth on those.
Posted by: Josh Scholar at August 28, 2006 01:50 PMAnd it's strange that the pictures for the other articles show up, but not this one
Posted by: Josh Scholar at August 28, 2006 01:51 PMExpertly written article but I am disappointed the pictures did not show up.
I linked to this specific article because I think more people need to read about what is going on from an independent source rather than a journalist bound by the agenda of his boss.
Hang in there, Michael.
Posted by: Trickish Knave at August 28, 2006 02:51 PMHmm photos are showing up fine for me but maybe since I got here early they are cashed and so show up.
Note to Dwight in Illinois, wanted to point to out that Israelis don't have a problem with Israeli Arabs (e.g., arabs living inside Israel and who are thus Israeli citizens). Our problem is with the Palestinian neighbors. Think U.S. and Mexico --only those two countries don't have the missiles going back and forth between them.
Posted by: Yael at August 28, 2006 02:58 PMMichael, this is so interesting, but I can't access the photos at all - how can I see them?
Posted by: Huldah at August 28, 2006 03:37 PMam I technicallly illiterate or do those pictures not work? I get a "bandwidth exceeded" icon.
Posted by: David Maclean at August 28, 2006 04:06 PMI was able to view the photos earlier but now cannot. D'oh!
-L
Thanks, Mike. I had mixed feelings reading the article, but I'm glad you're trying. Regardless of the popular Israeli theory related to media presence and rocket firings, I don't think either Israel or Gaza is better off for the media disinterest. And I'm sure Gaza isn't better off.
I recommend this article as an example:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/27/AR2006082700768.html
Or you might read the local editorial from, world upside down though it may be, a Hamas editor
decrying anarchy, thugs, and pointless Kassam launches.
It's not your fault, Mike, but I hope you're aware
of the muted picture you get seeing Gaza through interviews with Israeli border dwellers.
Blame Hamas and the Katyushas if you want, (although I don't think Hans Blix or Bill Gates would have been able to do much with 1.5 million undereducated, overarmed Gazans in a ten-mile strip blockaded by soldiers on four sides)
but the situation is a debacle - a bitter and jaded ending sucking everyone involved down, although not proportionately.
You also might have mentioned the 200 Gazans killed by the IDF in the past two months. Just sayin'.
Posted by: glasnost at August 28, 2006 04:32 PM
~~~~~You can drive from Tel Aviv to Gaza in an hour. How strange, then, that there’s a little war down there that no one else in Israel – not even the foreign correspondents – have any interest in or are really even aware of.~~~~~
But there are, Michael Totten. There are. Mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, close and not so close familymembers and friends and neighbours of those boys out there - of whom most of the mothers don't sleep at night...
Tse.
Posted by: tsedek at August 28, 2006 04:43 PMI also can't see pictures..It says bandwidth exceeded.
Posted by: CAthy at August 28, 2006 05:15 PMI see the pictures just fine. Nice bit of reporting Michael!
Posted by: Dawnsblood at August 28, 2006 05:43 PMAre the photos visible now?
Posted by: Michael J. Totten at August 28, 2006 05:43 PMAll place holders filled with a image
No Icons other then Pay Pal's
Looks about the same before bandwidth problem
Yep. Great work, as usual.
Posted by: Jim at August 28, 2006 06:14 PMYeah, they are visible, and once again, kudos for some snappy reporting. Your blog here is a shining example of how good journalism can be when you get rid of editors and publishers with agendas filtering everything.
Posted by: Mike Lorrey at August 28, 2006 06:15 PMNice reporting and your reader comments (mine not withstanding) are always great for expanding on the topic.
All pics are visible to me as of 6:35pm (PST).
Posted by: LA Guy at August 28, 2006 06:39 PMThat last photo, with the muzzle protector on the tube, was a self-propelled howitzer, not a tank. And the muzzle protector, of course, just keeps dust and debris out of the firing tube when it's not in use.
Posted by: Bob at August 28, 2006 06:57 PMKeep up the good work. The photos were great.
Mailing you a check.
More fantastic, true reporting.
Q to ask IDF forces: What do you think it will take to have peace?
I'm really interested in what the soldiers think about the future, near-term and long-term.
[My own answer would be:
Free speech among the Palestinians, and especially more business with less government. Poor Palestinians should be starting small banks and building societies (savings & loan groups) so as to finance reconstruction. Wealth creation, not Jew destruction, is what they need.]
The rockets and the society of hatred that creates them makes me so angry... Americans would never put up with being targeted like that. I don't understand why Israelis don't put their foot down, hard...
Anyway Tom, that's my answer. Israel will have peace if she ever has the resoluteness to make absolute ultimatums. Her enemies will give up attacking her, only when the only other alternative is massive death.
Posted by: Josh Scholar at August 29, 2006 01:44 AM"... too afraid to be the first one to let go."
Posted by: Dougie-Pundit at Augu
Actually Israel did "let go", withdrawing from Lebanon and Gaza and engaging in all kinds of peace initiatives, and all they got for it was betrayal and death, bombs wrapped in bullets soaked in rat poison. Now they're back in the deadlock, but this time the Israelis have a strong rationale for never letting go again.
It is impossible to negotiate anything but temporary cease fires with organizations and nations whose goal is to wipe you off the map. Every "peace" is simply a pause between fighting: the default diplomatic state of a neighbor sworn to destroy you is war.
For Israel to "pursue peace" they would have to erase themselves from the map. This is why they will, for the entirety of their existence, be at war. Because for an Israeli the price of peace is death, war is life.
*** OFF TOPIC ***
This brings me to the United States, and whether we are a nation of peace or war. Our price for peace is not existence; if we walked away from Israel and withdrew from the Middle East, Afghanistan, parts of Africa, and maybe the Phillipines we might convince our enemies to stop attacking us.
And it would still be safe, for as long as Israel existed, for an American to walk the streets of Tel Aviv. Israelis wouldn't blow themselves up in our buildings or hijack our planes, and if even after divesting from Israel we still got attacked by Islamic terrorists Israelis wouldn't even celebrate by dancing in the streets firing their Desert Eagles into the air.
This is why, for me, peace is a dirty word: its cost is betrayal of a loyal ally. I'd rather just go ahead and be the Great Satan. War with fanatic Islam is the price of our friendship with Israel, so we grit our teeth and wage it, as we understand the burden Israel must carry must likewise be borne by any who dare call her "friend".
I think liberals understand this relationship on some instinctive level; they feel the deep bond of mutual respect between our warrior subcultures and are repulsed by it, and it comes out as anti-Semitism.
The cognitive dissonance must be unbearable: war is never the answer, yet the price of friendship with Israel is war. This proves something is wrong either with pacifism or Israel. Since to the liberal nothing can ever be wrong with pacifism ...
Well you know what they say about a foolish consistency. Torn between friendship and blind faith in doctrine, I would choose the former and adjust the latter.
Posted by: Laika's Last Woof at August 29, 2006 03:12 AMglasnots said:
but the situation is a debacle - a bitter and jaded ending sucking everyone involved down, although not proportionately.
You also might have mentioned the 200 Gazans killed by the IDF in the past two months. Just sayin'.
Just saying what, exactly? That responding to Israel's pullout by bringing in Hamas, destroying all the Jewish-built infrastructure, launching terrorist attacks on Israel, kidnapping her soldiers, kidnapping journalists, etc. should have brought prosperity to the residents of Gaza? And the fact that it did not is Israel's fault?
Posted by: Michael Smith at August 29, 2006 07:05 AMThe rockets and the society of hatred that creates them makes me so angry... Americans would never put up with being targeted like that.
Nope.
I don't understand why Israelis don't put their foot down, hard...
The perspective you have on the world as one of three hundred million citizens of a superpower-class nation is very different than the perspective you have as one of seven million citizens of a nation that has been repeatedly invaded en masse by it's neighbors.
One of the things I like about this website is that it helps me understand their perspective.
Posted by: rosignol at August 29, 2006 07:33 AM"I don't think Hans Blix or Bill Gates would have been able to do much with 1.5 million undereducated, overarmed Gazans in a ten-mile strip blockaded by soldiers on four sides...."
If the British colonialists of previous centuries were still around, they probably could.
Gaza is a ridiculously tiny entity with ocean on one side and large, not-always-friendly neighbors on the others ... kind of like Hong Kong, Singapore, Monaco and Macao. Except Gaza has a lower population density than any of those four.
There's no reason that Gaza couldn't be (like Hong Kong, Singapore, Monaco and Macao) the richest, nicest place in its neighborhood, except for the actions of its own residents.
Posted by: Ralph Phelan at August 29, 2006 07:39 AMAny metal exposed to fire will rust almost overnight. Find pictures of tanks that have burned on a battlefield and sat for a day or two, and you will see heavy rust developing. The missile in the picture could very well have been fired less than a week before the picture was taken.
Posted by: LCB at August 29, 2006 09:38 AMMake that any iron based metal...
Posted by: LCB at August 29, 2006 09:39 AMThe two last "tanks" are not tanks, they are artillery cannons or whatever you call that in English.
Posted by: yoni at August 29, 2006 11:55 AMMichael Smith:
Glasnost is just saying not enough Jews have died.
Posted by: Abu Nudnik at August 30, 2006 01:23 PMman what's up with those surveillance baloons?
Posted by: ortho at August 30, 2006 06:19 PMman what's up with those surveillance baloons?
It's a good way to get cameras up high.
I'm surprised they don't get shot at, though. Balloons are big targets, much easier to hit than a person.
Posted by: rosignol at August 31, 2006 02:25 AM
