Beirut: Before and After

September 5, 2006 8:28 PM

Beirut: Before and After
posted by poweredbybeard (44 comments total)

I'm surprised they hit a mosque. Aren't those off limits?
posted by reformedjerk at 8:33 PM on September 5, 2006

Has the mosque been hit? It doesn't look like it.

Far less interesting than it should have been.
posted by cillit bang at 8:35 PM on September 5, 2006

Far less interesting than it should have been.

Sorry. I'll ring the IDF and see if they can't maybe, you know, start bombing in patterns. Daisies, or smiley faces. Like ASCII art, dig? Only the pixels are human misery.
posted by poweredbybeard at 8:44 PM on September 5, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

.
posted by knave at 8:46 PM on September 5, 2006

Remarkably effective presentation. Thank you.
posted by speug at 8:47 PM on September 5, 2006

Yeah, it really shows that Israel bombed Beirut. I didn't know that.
posted by smackfu at 8:48 PM on September 5, 2006

Israel must go.
posted by davy at 8:51 PM on September 5, 2006

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posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:52 PM on September 5, 2006

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posted by mulligan at 8:55 PM on September 5, 2006

For what it's worth, the area show is just about the size of Chelsea in NYC. If that - y'know - gives anyone a sense of the scale.

For comparison.
posted by icosahedral at 9:20 PM on September 5, 2006

I think the original New York Times version was posted before. That one shows a larger area.

The area pictured is Haret Hreik, a Shia neighborhood that was the administrative center of Hezbollah. Imainein al Husseinein mosque was not hit.
posted by blahblahblah at 9:25 PM on September 5, 2006

Wow. I feel sick. I need to call someone in Beirut and tell her I miss her.
posted by Alison at 9:35 PM on September 5, 2006

Also, an extremely high resolution view, (1.5 MB photo) from which this comparison was made. There is an amazing contrast between the destroyed blocks and the surrounding area.
posted by blahblahblah at 9:39 PM on September 5, 2006

Shit.

.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:33 PM on September 5, 2006

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posted by pwedza at 10:41 PM on September 5, 2006

Oh blahblahblah, another "surgical strike" in a useless perpetual colonial war. Wow, I'm so impressed, I don't know what to say. Oh wait, I do know what to say: Are you fucking kidding? What about all the Israeli-flattened real estate -- and human beings -- elsewhere in Lebanon? So they left one pretty mosque still standing, whoop-de-fucking do. I'll bet more Lebanese civilians -- men, women and children, of any or no religion -- died in this Israeli slaughter than during "9/11", besides the Israeli civilians the fanatical morons at Hizbullah managed to hit despite Israel's non-Third World protections. It's not a video game y'know.
posted by davy at 10:46 PM on September 5, 2006

I'll bet more Lebanese civilians -- men, women and children, of any or no religion -- died in this Israeli slaughter than during "9/11"...

That's a bet you would lose.
posted by kickingtheground at 11:01 PM on September 5, 2006

Wasn't this plastered over the frontpage of every newspaper around the time of the ceasefire?

Still, nice presentation - thanks for the post.
posted by spazzm at 11:16 PM on September 5, 2006

That's a bet you would lose.

According to the Lebanese government, as of Sunday the number of civilian deaths due to the conflict was 1187. Quite a bit lower than the 2973 attributed to 9/11. Still seems very high for essentially a 3 week campaign of supposedly targetted bombing.
posted by gsteff at 11:36 PM on September 5, 2006

For what it's worth, the area show is just about the size of Chelsea in NYC. If that - y'know - gives anyone a sense of the scale.

They are both the size of some urban looking area. Thanks, that puts it all into perspective!

Anyway, yeah. Sucks to be lebanon. It's not like I need pictures like this to understand how horrible the situation over there was. The right wing will just claim the pictures are photoshoped, which seems to be their new hobby.
posted by delmoi at 2:39 AM on September 6, 2006

Is it me...or does Beirut have one particular architectural firm for all those medium level high rises?
posted by RubberHen at 3:31 AM on September 6, 2006

Anyway, yeah. Sucks to be lebanon. It's not like I need pictures like this to understand how horrible the situation over there was
posted by delmoi at 2:39 AM PST

For some, they do need pictures or a visit.
posted by rough ashlar at 4:21 AM on September 6, 2006

I'm just glad Israel is now safer because it obliterated hundreds of Lebanese civilians.
posted by bardic at 4:31 AM on September 6, 2006

I'm sure the men and women who weren't obliterated but lost everything will have learned their lesson, too, and won't even think about supporting the organization(s) that will be promising revenge.
posted by solipse at 4:46 AM on September 6, 2006

See also: satellite images of the huge oil slick along the Lebanese coast caused by the Israeli bombing of a power station: NASA, BBC.
posted by carter at 5:58 AM on September 6, 2006

davy, yes, of course, your "Israel must go" comment is the height of enlightenment, and my posting the high resolution picture of Haret Hreik, and a response to the questions of the first two comments in this thread about the mosque in the area, is an indication of support for civilian casualties. How insightful.
posted by blahblahblah at 5:59 AM on September 6, 2006

I'll bet more Lebanese civilians -- men, women and children, of any or no religion -- died in this Israeli slaughter than during "9/11"

More US military personnel have died in the War on Terror.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:22 AM on September 6, 2006

"You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell! "
- Charlton Heston, prophet.
posted by I, Credulous at 6:26 AM on September 6, 2006

"According to the Lebanese government, as of Sunday the number of civilian deaths due to the conflict was 1187. Quite a bit lower than the 2973 attributed to 9/11."

Oh okay, so this most recent Israeli bombing of Lebanon took way less than half the civilian lives that the U.S. lost on that fateful day. So sorry, my bad. Then we should insist Israel go back and bomb them ragheads some more. Maybe eventually the Israeli air force will become as good at "surgical strikes" as those miscreant Saudis were: to quote the Wikipedia article on the World Trade Center, "[u]ltimately, 2,749 death certificates were filed relating to the WTC attacks, as of February 2005," from one two-plane attack of one office complex in one city. "More bang for the buck!"
posted by davy at 6:53 AM on September 6, 2006

Don't worry about bombings in Israel. They don't add up at all, either.
posted by inigo2 at 7:01 AM on September 6, 2006

Damn. The IDF doesn't fuck around when it's blowing shit up.
posted by chunking express at 7:04 AM on September 6, 2006

But chunking express, yes they do! The IDF's a bunch of wankers, like you'd expect of innocents.
posted by davy at 7:11 AM on September 6, 2006

Magnum's Chris Anderson in Lebanon
posted by matteo at 8:06 AM on September 6, 2006

Oh blahblahblah, another "surgical strike" in a useless perpetual colonial war.

Personally, I appreciate the posting of the high-res picture. Blahblahblah is right - the contrast between the bombed areas (which are completely and utterly razed) and those around them is striking (though the picture doesn't show the emotional impact, or shrapnel in people's living rooms, etc)

It rounds out the post. But looking at it in the context of the original picture, it becomes clear that while "surgical strikes" are apparently possible to a limited degree, when you do a whole lot of them in a very small area, it doesn't matter how precise they were - you're still irrevocably changing the city of which the buildings were an inseparable part. I actually take it as a strong counterpoint against the old surgical strike argument.

In a way it's actually even more horrific that they can decimate people's lives with such exactitude - and then did it over and over.

Both pictures, like any, are lying, just in different ways - so it's useful to combine them.
posted by poweredbybeard at 8:12 AM on September 6, 2006

War sucks.
posted by Vindaloo at 8:26 AM on September 6, 2006

The UN's humanitarian chief has accused Israel of "completely immoral" use of cluster bombs in Lebanon.

It will take 10 years to clear the 100,000 cluster bombs dropped in Lebanon.
posted by chunking express at 8:46 AM on September 6, 2006

This was done with our money and weapons. We fund Israel's military actions because of the current agreement of their government's goals with ours. This is the same reason we funded guerillas in South America and why we funded bin Laden and Saddam.

Is there any reason not to expect that this pattern won't repeat, that in 10-15 years we won't be getting hit by Israeli terrorist groups who were fostered at this time? I realize that right now those resources are in the hands of the state, but there's not any reason to expect that to be a permanent situation.
posted by sonofsamiam at 8:51 AM on September 6, 2006

sonofsamiam

give me a break.
posted by Kifer85 at 10:27 PM on September 6, 2006

Seethe little monkeys, seethe!
posted by Krrrlson at 12:53 AM on September 7, 2006

Reminds me of Adonis, or 'Ali Ahmad Sa'id's The Desert, specifically The Diary of Beirut under siege.

posted by Kudos at 4:18 AM on September 7, 2006

(1982)
posted by Kudos at 4:21 AM on September 7, 2006

Arrggg, flip back to page one in that link. Hey, I'm new at this. Third time is the charm anyway.
posted by Kudos at 4:25 AM on September 7, 2006

Israel is pretty much free to do what it wants, as the only "nuclear power" in the region (besides Pakistan). Somehow they manage to get money from us Americans to fund their exercises - the very same kinds of behaviors that get other countries into trouble with us.
posted by Sukiari at 4:37 PM on September 7, 2006

What a waste. Beirut is a great city and it will rebuild (again).
posted by cell divide at 4:42 PM on September 7, 2006