Ryan Masse's article, "Barret Mistaken, Delusional," contains a slew of half-truths, misrepresentations, and outright lies dressed up as facts by smug journalistic prose. But there is one particular whopper which, in my opinion, dwarfs the rest: "Israel has taken extreme caution to minimize civilian casualties in combat."

Israeli soldiers have taken a rather different view of the matter. One IDF artillery commander described his army's conduct as follows: "In Lebanon, we covered entire villages with cluster bombs, what we did there was crazy and monstrous." Ninety percent of these launchings of cluster bombs occurred in the last 72 hours of the "war" (perhaps assault or massacre are better descriptors), after a cease-fire had already been agreed upon. They served absolutely no military purpose, unless you consider blowing the limbs off of Lebanese farmers for the next few years as they try and harvest their crops an important strategic goal.

Israel's disgusting conduct in Lebanon this summer was, sadly, not without precedent. During the 1982 invasion of that same war-ravaged country, Israeli troops, under the command of Arial Sharon, surrounded and sealed off the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. They then provided cover for their allies, the fascist (and yes, I mean fascist in the sense of actively imitating the Nazi Party) Phalange, to enter the camps and systematically murder, with axes and knives, 3,000 Palestinian refugees. Again, these are hardly military actions undertaken with "extreme caution." "Extreme prejudice" seems to have been more on the order of the day.

There are plenty of things wrong with Mr. Masse's article. I happen to think so thoroughly misrepresenting Israel's human rights record is the most odious. In perpetuating this myth, Mr. Masse has taken a page from one of the most infamous twentieth century leaders: "Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it and eventually they will believe it."

Paul Heideman is a Graduate Student in the Department of Afro-American Studies.