It's a new tactic, developed by Muslim extremists over the last 15 or so years and perfected by Hezbollah in the 2006 war with Israel: locate military facilities in mosques, hospitals, schools and, especially, densely polulated urban areas. Essentially, use your own people and sacred institutions as sheilds. That way, there are certain to be innocent civilian casulties every time your enemy tries to hit your facilities.

If they hit a mosque (being used as a fort) CLAIM TO BE A VICTIM!! "They're destroying our sacred institutions!"

If they hit a school (being used for central command) CLAIM TO BE A VICTIM!! "What animals! They're attacking a school!!"

If they hit an ammo dump (wisely located in a densely polulated urban area) CLAIM TO BE A VICTIM!! "They're killing innocent civilians!!" Oh, and claim it was deliberate targeting of civilians too. Nobody in the Arab world is going to challenge that.

So far it seems to be working. Nobody took Hezbollah to task for doing it, and nobody seems to be taking Hamas to task for doing it either. Hamas set up their military facilities so that there were certain to be civilian casulties if the Israelis tried to hit them. Then, when it inevitably happened, people blamed Israel. Hardly anyone pointed the finger at Hamas for what they did.

Because of this, the tactic is sure to gain polularity and many, many more innocent civilians are going to die in the next couple decades than had to, not to mention the ones dying now.

Sometimes desperate situation breeds desperate measures.

We should of think about that long time ago...