[Peace-discuss] "Where is the Outcry over Children Killed by US Led Forces?"

Mon Jun 20 03:15:08 UTC 2016

Perhaps a flyer for the July demonstration? We could include a B&W photo.

> On Jun 19, 2016, at 10:10 PM, Stuart Levy via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
> 
> After Karen Aram's discussion about trying to move people by showing them pictures of children harmed by US-supported wars, I found this:
> 
>        <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__blogs.scientificamerican.com_cross-2Dcheck_where-2Dis-2Doutcry-2Dover-2Dchildren-2Dkilled-2Dby-2Du-2Ds-2Dled-2Dforces_&d=CwMDaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=tfHzwZBcTLEveiewRiq0OdhFmfRmlvZjpIBS0AUJ2v0&m=SSX6-X42iCBh2V_ZLv0AOskv55E2Nt0YvRfxcvGmMgI&s=_IgdizyuvdXAlD1FBXXh_wcVdpRgoWeG25lCke3Lrx8&e=>http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/where-is-outcry-over-children-killed-by-u-s-led-forces/ <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__blogs.scientificamerican.com_cross-2Dcheck_where-2Dis-2Doutcry-2Dover-2Dchildren-2Dkilled-2Dby-2Du-2Ds-2Dled-2Dforces_&d=CwMDaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=tfHzwZBcTLEveiewRiq0OdhFmfRmlvZjpIBS0AUJ2v0&m=SSX6-X42iCBh2V_ZLv0AOskv55E2Nt0YvRfxcvGmMgI&s=_IgdizyuvdXAlD1FBXXh_wcVdpRgoWeG25lCke3Lrx8&e=>
> 
> A September, 2015 article in a mainstream science magazine (Scientific American), by a guy whom I'd known as mainstream science writer (John Horgan).    He appears to have a whole series of anti-war articles in Sci Am over the last few years.   Quoting from this one:
> 
>> [...] Unfortunately, many people react to the killing of children with a shrug or a cheer. Americans flocked to American Sniper, which lionizes a soldier who, in the opening scene, shoots an Iraqi boy and his mother. (See my critique of the film here. <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__blogs.scientificamerican.com_cross-2Dcheck_what-2Dwar-2Dpropaganda-2Dlike-2D8220-2Damerican-2Dsniper-2D8221-2Dreveals-2Dabout-2Dus_&d=CwMDaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=tfHzwZBcTLEveiewRiq0OdhFmfRmlvZjpIBS0AUJ2v0&m=SSX6-X42iCBh2V_ZLv0AOskv55E2Nt0YvRfxcvGmMgI&s=BMC6OVe0MD_ez1WzmC3qaYxQ7oTW-A-y53S5KB-L65E&e=>) When I object to the U.S. military killing children, I often hear three counter-arguments. Here they are, with my responses:
>> 
>> Argument 1: Children are often killers themselves, whom our troops kill in self-defense. This is the view advanced implicitly in American Sniper. The sniper, Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, shoots a boy who is threatening U.S. soldiers with a bomb. The phenomenon of child warriors is all too real. According to the United Nations <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__childrenandarmedconflict.un.org_effects-2Dof-2Dconflict_six-2Dgrave-2Dviolations_child-2Dsoldiers_&d=CwMDaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=tfHzwZBcTLEveiewRiq0OdhFmfRmlvZjpIBS0AUJ2v0&m=SSX6-X42iCBh2V_ZLv0AOskv55E2Nt0YvRfxcvGmMgI&s=Rz98WMtrkrP8sCfvzzdWFRIKdkyC1R8MJwQ0Y1GstdE&e=>, “hundreds of thousands of children are used as soldiers in armed conflicts around the world.” But child soldiers are victims, who should if possible be rescued and rehabilitated, not killed. Moreover, the vast majority of children killed by U.S. forces are not suspected combatants. They are “collateral damage” resulting from U.S. attacks on adult targets.
>> 
>> Argument 2. Our enemies kill children too. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Boko Haram and other militant groups have indeed committed atrocities against children, according the United Nations <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.un.org_press_en_2015_sc11832.doc.htm&d=CwMDaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=tfHzwZBcTLEveiewRiq0OdhFmfRmlvZjpIBS0AUJ2v0&m=SSX6-X42iCBh2V_ZLv0AOskv55E2Nt0YvRfxcvGmMgI&s=lAIw0p1DZIQ9qFLxFZnha79JyRP3obD5ZCJsdokhauc&e=>. But we abhor these groups, supposedly, because we find their brutal treatment of civilians (among other acts) inexcusable. Their behavior cannot excuse ours. Moreover, when we commit atrocities, we provide ISIS and other groups with a provocation and justification for their behavior. We should set a moral example for militant groups, not stoop to their behavior.
>> 
>> Argument 3. We don’t kill children on purpose. When presented with irrefutable evidence that its forces have killed children or other civilians, the U.S. occasionally apologizes (see below), while insisting that the deaths were unintentional. But when our forces kill children over and over again, claims that the killings are unintentional become hollow, a cynical evasion of responsibility. We would be outraged if American police, in attacks on suspected criminals, routinely killed children who happened to be nearby. We should be equally outraged when U.S. troops kill children in their operations.
>> 
>> Last November, for example, an air strike by the U.S.-led alliance aimed at a suspected “explosives-making and storage facility” in Syria “likely caused the deaths of two civilian children,” the Pentagon has acknowledged <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www2.centcom.mil_sites_foia_rr_CENTCOM-2520Regulation-2520CCR-252025210_CIVCAS_Harim-2520City-2C-2520Syria-2520-2D-25205-2D6-2520Nov-252014_AR-252015-2D6-2520Investigation-2520-2D-2520Harim-2520Syria-2520CIVCAS-2C-25205-2D6-2520Nov-252014.pdf&d=CwMDaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=tfHzwZBcTLEveiewRiq0OdhFmfRmlvZjpIBS0AUJ2v0&m=SSX6-X42iCBh2V_ZLv0AOskv55E2Nt0YvRfxcvGmMgI&s=jaMqCcFYpJrO51XQXmmXwLCcgnSYRPq4RI6rVvDr6Z0&e=>. One was a five year old girl, Daniya Ali Al Haj Qaddour, who poses with her father, Ali Saeed Al Haj Qaddoura, a suspected militant, in the photo above. Airwars.org <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__airwars.org_&d=CwMDaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=tfHzwZBcTLEveiewRiq0OdhFmfRmlvZjpIBS0AUJ2v0&m=SSX6-X42iCBh2V_ZLv0AOskv55E2Nt0YvRfxcvGmMgI&s=6ncuyBv8dm9xLtvancvlN-4boHbqs-R9ivhCn-FRfGg&e=> has posted a video of Daniya and the other child killed in the attack here <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__airwars.org_news_6-2Dmonths-2Dafter-2Ddeadly-2Dsyrian-2Dair-2Draid-2Dcentcom-2Dfinally-2Dconcedes-2Dus-2Dstrike-2Dkilled-2Dchildren_&d=CwMDaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=tfHzwZBcTLEveiewRiq0OdhFmfRmlvZjpIBS0AUJ2v0&m=SSX6-X42iCBh2V_ZLv0AOskv55E2Nt0YvRfxcvGmMgI&s=b_qMPSsluQgtDEPZPNw8MK7N_Q0fXwFk6ryF0nHXY4g&e=>. Pentagon officials admit that the deaths of the two children violate “international humanitarian law” and state that the alliance should “ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”
>> 
>> At this point, many readers are no doubt thinking that war is a messy, unpredictable business, which always ends up hurting innocent people, such as children. Exactly. That is why war must end.
>> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20160619/8cc79f58/attachment-0001.html>