Monday, July 24, 2006
Some Civilians Are More Civilianny Than Others
I swear to God, Alan Dershowitz actually says this.
The Israeli army has given well-publicized notice to civilians to leave those areas of southern Lebanon that have been turned into war zones. Those who voluntarily remain behind have become complicit. Some — those who cannot leave on their own — should be counted among the innocent victims.
If the media were to adopt this "continuum," it would be informative to learn how many of the "civilian casualties" fall closer to the line of complicity and how many fall closer to the line of innocence.
Every civilian death is a tragedy, but some are more tragic than others.
Yes, because everyone who doesn't move out of a region that is right in the area of disaster is automatically complicit in that disaster, and had it coming to them. Who cares if they're too poor to move, or don't want to give up their lives to risk having to move from place to place for somewhere to stay, not knowing whether they'll either regain their old lives. After all, we learned sweet fuck all from Katrina.
I can only quote what John Rogers said about this: the fact that someone can try and weasel away at one of the iron-clad truths of war-- that civilian casualties are detestable and must be avoided at all costs-- makes me sick to my fucking stomach. Yes, some of these people have likely worked with Hezbollah and Hamas. Does that really mean we should play Pin the Tail on the Donkey with human lives?
The Israeli army has given well-publicized notice to civilians to leave those areas of southern Lebanon that have been turned into war zones. Those who voluntarily remain behind have become complicit. Some — those who cannot leave on their own — should be counted among the innocent victims.
If the media were to adopt this "continuum," it would be informative to learn how many of the "civilian casualties" fall closer to the line of complicity and how many fall closer to the line of innocence.
Every civilian death is a tragedy, but some are more tragic than others.
Yes, because everyone who doesn't move out of a region that is right in the area of disaster is automatically complicit in that disaster, and had it coming to them. Who cares if they're too poor to move, or don't want to give up their lives to risk having to move from place to place for somewhere to stay, not knowing whether they'll either regain their old lives. After all, we learned sweet fuck all from Katrina.
I can only quote what John Rogers said about this: the fact that someone can try and weasel away at one of the iron-clad truths of war-- that civilian casualties are detestable and must be avoided at all costs-- makes me sick to my fucking stomach. Yes, some of these people have likely worked with Hezbollah and Hamas. Does that really mean we should play Pin the Tail on the Donkey with human lives?
