(Photo: Tyler Hicks / The New York Times)
This picture is of Zahra al-Samra an 18 year old girl in Hosh, Lebanon. She is being comforted by her brother in a hospital days after she was wounded and their mother and sister died in an Israeli airstrike in nearby Tyre. France and the European Union have accused Israel of "disproportionate use of force" for attacks on the civilian infrastructure which has led to a resulting asymmetry in civilian casualties.
What do airports, bridges and civilian infrastructure have to do with Hezbollah?
Would it make sense to destroy all the freeways, bridges and overpasses in downtown Oklahoma City because Timothy McVeigh used them to deliver a fertilizer truck bomb to the federal building?
Meanwhile, the Bush administration continues to refrain from working to negotiate peace between Israel and Hezbollah.
Everybody in Lebanon is not a terrorist.
When a cease fire is finally called, there will certainly be more people in the world who are sympathetic to the terrorists than when Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.
When a cease fire is finally called, there will certainly be more people in the world who are sympathetic to the terrorists than when Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.
2 comments:
Right on! Of course, it's only a matter or time before inevitable accusations of anti-Semitism emerge.
No race, ethicity, nation is composed of innocent, including Israel.
The U.S. committed genocidal violence against the Indians, Germany with the Jews, Australians with the aborigines, etc.
In response to wars on terrorism, humanity MUST rethink it's rules on war to include some measure of proportionality. KIdnapping 2 soldiers does not merit devastating an entire country.
For more on war ethics, see the Robert McNamara interview film called Fog of War.
Will said: In response to wars on terrorism, humanity MUST rethink it's rules on war to include some measure of proportionality.
I reply: Or, we can decide that Just War Theory has failed rather spectacularly and adopt practices of just peacemaking, including nonviolent direct action, conflict resolution practices, support for human rights movements, etc. Maybe the way to be the brother/sister's keeper is to conclude that Jesus, Gandhi, King, Cesar Chavez, Thich Nhat Hanh, Aung San Suu Kyi, Desmond Tutu, Dorothy Day, Clarence Jordan, and so many other champions of nonviolence actually knew what they were talking about. 'Cause the good Lord knows violence sure has a poor track record.
These are the rantings of a former soldier who became a pacifist and conscientious objector when he converted to follow Jesus.
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