Monday, October 07, 2002

The Logic of War War is really bad.  Few in Congress will acknowledge why most people, including the American people, are so reluctant to go to war unless attacked.  The reason is that the logic of war creates monstrous crimes, and makes criminals of us all.    The latest crime was Israel’s massacre of Palestinians in the Khan Younis refugee camp today when a helicopter fired a missile into a crowd who apparently thought the Israeli soldiers had withdrawn.  11 people were killed, and 25 are in critical condition.  Later that day, Israel fired on a hospital where many relatives had gone to seek information about the wounded.  Four more people were hurt by army fire at the hospital, including a 14-year-old boy hit in the neck and a paramedic wounded in the chest.   In Haaretz, Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Weizman Shiri said  "The most militant of Hamas men are located there, and if damage was caused to innocent civilians, we can be sorry, but what can you do - this is war."   That’s the point—the army knew that going into a crowded refugee camp after Hamas would result in civilian deaths, because there is simply no room in Gaza to separate ordinary people from militants.  So the logic of war dictates more killing of civilians, and more and more frantic attempts by the Israeli army to justify civilian killing.  But isn’t their chief complaint against terrorists that they target civilians.   Israel, which used to be considered a society that sought justice, and respected humanity, is now soiled beyond recognition—all by the logic of war.  It is a classic case of the ends justifying the means, which is what usually happens in war.    Terror bombings don’t happen without a context—and those who refuse to see the context will eventually kill more innocent people than the terrorists.  So by the logic of war, there is no longer a just and an unjust side—each side is engaged in an orgy of killing the other simply for being.   When Pres. Bush tries to get us to go to war with Iraq, he is setting up a situation for Americans to become the Israeli army—killing civilians in Baghdad because they’re there.  Many Americans realize this and don’t want this blood on our hands.   Our soldiers also should not be put into these war crime situations.    When we say no unilateral killing, we are simply trying to live up to one of the most universal human feelings—not to attack unless you have been attacked.   When the sniper killings began in Maryland the other day my first thought was what a perfect terrorist crime.  Buy a legal assault rifle with little background check, and randomly kill Americans.  So far the media has focused on a deranged, possibly psychotic killer.  But the logic of war can make thousands of these killers—who see Americans not as civilians, but as enemies.   Is this too dire?  Here is what Hamas official Abed al Aziz Rantisi was quoted by Israel Radio as declaring, "This is an appeal from the heart ... Strike everywhere, kill every Zionist wherever he comes from, whether from America or Russia, they are all murderers and criminals, and not a single one of them is an innocent...”   Is this what George Bush is leading America into??? 6:32:41 PM   comment []

© Copyright 2002 Toby Sackton. Last update: 12/26/2002; 9:30:21 PM.