The glee that Mr. Donegan indulges in about the remote detonations of pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon requires a certain amount of ignorance or negligence, if not arrogance and sadism ("In fight against terrorists, pagers are more targeted than bombs and bullets," Sept, 26). It's not funny.

Leon Panetta, former head of the CIA and Pentagon, on Sept. 22, told CBS regarding the pager attack, "I don't think there's any question that it's a form of terrorism." Additionally, Article 7(2) of the Amended Protocol II of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons prohibits the use of booby traps. That treaty, to which Israel is a signatory, prohibits the use of booby-traps or other devices in the form of apparently harmless portable objects that are specifically designed and constructed to contain explosive material.

Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said, that "the fear and terror unleashed" was "profound" and that "simultaneous targeting of thousands of individuals, whether civilians or members of armed groups, without knowledge as to who was in possession of the targeted devices, their location, and their surroundings at the time of the attack, violates international human rights law and, to the extent applicable, international humanitarian law."

In addition to the few Hezbollah operatives killed, at least 3,000 innocent civilians, including women, children, health workers, storekeepers, diplomats, and politicians were killed or injured, causing blindness, loss of limbs, and organ damage in the attacks on supermarkets, cars, and apartments, and hospitals were overwhelmed. The explosions caused widespread panic among the Lebanese public, the precise objective of terrorist attacks and the definition of a war crime. This has opened a new phase of warfare and terrorism in which the weapons include computers, smartphones, cars, and all electronic devices.

This is no accident, no "surgical strike," and the civilians are not "collateral damage." The Dahiya Doctrine is fundamental to Israel's war-making strategy, named after the suburb of Beirut it destroyed in its disastrous and unsuccessful war against Hezbollah in 2006. The goal is to inflict collective and long-lasting punishment to cripple the economy and the ability to recover and rebuild, while humiliating and terrorizing the whole population, regardless of the civilian consequences.

Tactically, the Dahiya Doctrine calls for disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks on government and civilian infrastructure, schools, and religious institutions. The doctrine defines them as military bases and civilians as enemies. It's been enacted in Gaza for a year, and now in Lebanon. While some extolled the remote explosions as technically sophisticated and ingenious, they were definitely not "precisely targeted," nor were they intended to be.

Donegan's claims that the bombs, "exclusively targeted enemy combatants and minimized the threat to noncombatants," that only a "small number of civilians [were] reportedly hurt," that the "vast majority of casualties were Hezbollah personnel," that they were deployed "under all recognized international conventions," and that these attacks were "moral" and "ethical" are all false.

Donegan asserts those who support and advocate for adherence to the laws of war, international treaties, and humanitarian laws are "supposed [fake] 'humanitarians'" who are motivated by "tribalism." Slanderously, he smears them as, "just upset that 'their side' suffered a big setback," as if anyone who opposes war crimes sides with terrorists. He accuses those who object to these attacks based on principles and laws as being identical to Hamas because, "they view the civilian population of Gaza just as Hamas does—as expendable public relations tools to be exploited in conducting the war." Such reprehensible and repulsive personal attacks, all too common in the current atmosphere, have no place in rational dialogue and deserve to be condemned.

Perhaps, Mr. Donegan would benefit from paying less attention to the Three Stooges and the Roadrunner's Wiley Coyote, and more to the global consequences of this new method of killing and accurate news about the escalating regional war in the Middle East. Δ

David Broadwater writes to New Times from Atascadero. Send an opinion of your own for publication to [email protected].