[extropy-chat] Re: Meta: Too far

[Joseph Bloch]

Samantha Atkins wrote:

>
> On Jun 29, 2005, at 4:00 PM, Joseph Bloch wrote:
>
>> Now, that being said, I think there is a WORLD of difference  between 
>> forcing unarmed Communist party officials to dig their own  graves 
>> for summary execution in 1943, and US Marines firing at  Iraqi 
>> soldiers who are armed with machine guns, tanks, and RPGs (or  
>> terrorists armed with machine guns, suicide bomb-vests, and RPGs).  
>> And if any of my European (or any other, for that matter) friends  
>> cannot see that distinction, then I mourn for the loss of any sort  
>> of substantive communication between us.
>
>
> Do you believe this in the only type of people our military forces  
> are firing at, bombing and so on?


Intentionally? Absolutely. Are there going to be unavoidable collateral 
casualties? Equally absolutely. Especially in a situation where parsing 
the enemy from the friendlies from the neutrals is ten times harder 
because the enemy deliberately tries to disguise itself as the latter 
(in contravention of the Geneva Convention which gets tossed about so 
glibly by the anti-American folks, I might add).

But to bring a little perspective into the conversation, compare the 
non-combatant deaths in Iraq (or Panama, for that matter) with those in 
World War II. The United States, in modern warfare, goes to extremes of 
care NOT to inflict collateral damage that would have seemed the height 
of absurdity to the men who planned the fire-bombing of Dresden and the 
dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

If we were really possessed of the mind-set the America-bashers (and I 
employ the term loosely, knowing full well it will generate viceral 
reaction) claim, then we would have carpet-bombed Iraq from the outset, 
with no thought to the civilian toll. And yet what did we do instead? We 
were so surgical and meticulous in our attacks that Saddam Hussein 
himself was even given to say, in custody:

"America, they dumb. They bomb wrong palace."

If we were the indiscriminate barbarians some portray us as, there would 
not have been ANY "palaces" remaining after the first three days of the 
air campaign. Or precious little else.

So yes, Samantha, I DO believe that the United States military has shown 
a level of restraint unheard-of in modern history in its conduct of the 
war in Iraq, and it should be lauded for doing so. I do believe that it 
makes every effort to target only those who are trying to kill us. Does 
it sometimes get it wrong? Of course. But do you blame the military who 
is trying to be so precise, or the enemy who is deliberately hiding in 
the homes of innocent people, disguising themselves as noncombatants, 
and infiltrating Iraqi installations posing as friendly forces?

You need to reassess where the blame for innocent deaths lies, Samantha.

Joseph

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