Riverbend is talking about the Falloojeh Massacre. “Over 300 are dead in Falloojeh and they have taken to burying the dead in the town football field because they aren’t allowed near the cemetery.” Is this the right response? Riverbend feels that it sounds very much like group punishment. And a very cruel one. ¹
She also says that we should see the pictures they are seeing on TV. TelePolis has often talked about this – the power of pictures to sway, without the need of arguments. What should we make of it?
I try to apply the “Vegetarian Test” I use for this kind of stuff:
**Would you, being in their place, do the same thing?**
For the original problem, this was a good problem: Being the butcher, would you kill the cow, cut it up, hang it on steel hooks, make some sausages with the rest, rinse the floor and wipe of the blood sticking to your fingers? The answer is *NO* – and therefore I should not pay a butcher to do a job I would revile doing myself.
I can even apply it to border patrols trying to prevent migration: Being a border patrol, would you send a bunch of poor and desperate youngsters back to their home country, eventhough they spent their last money (and the last money of their relatives) on getting smuggled? The answer is *NO* – I’d feel like Swiss border patrol sending jewish refugees back to Nazi Germany.
But sometimes it is hard to say. In a war, would I be able to say *NO* after seing some of the things people see? Maybe hate and anger would change me. I sure hope I never need to find out. This is why I’m never sure what I’d do as a soldier or militia man in a war. But as we move away from the bloody action itself, as we return to the dogs of war in their comfortable offices, I’m reminded of my Vegetarian Test: Would they kill the 300 if they had to do it themselves and were able to, face-to-face? If not, how can they send in their troops to do the slaughtering for them?
I can see SalamPax’ point, when he says:
Dear US administration, Welcome to the next level. Please don’t act surprised and what sort of timing is that: planning to go on a huge attack on the west of Iraq and provoking a group you know very well (I pray to god you knew) that they are trouble makers. Oh and before I forget.........Help please. ²
Yes, “help please.” I wonder what they administration is trying to do now. Going for all-out war risking hundreds of Iraqis wounded, mutilated for life, or dead, is not going to work in the long run. Maybe the other plan is not going to work either.
I don’t know what to suggest. Did they try talking?
Sometimes it helps to just focus on basic human rights. It helps you get your priorities straight.
Riverbend says, for example:
This is supposed to be ’retaliation’ for what happened last week with the American contractors [...] ³
Here are some relevant quotes ⁴:
;Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. ;Article 11: Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
Or maybe you feel that the country is at war. Is it? If so, how come Switzerland and others are still arms-trafficking with a warring nation? Anyway, here’s from the “Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War” ⁵:
;Article 6: In the case of occupied territory, the application of the present Convention shall cease one year after the general close of military operations; however, the Occupying Power shall be bound, for the duration of the occupation, to the extent that such Power exercises the functions of government in such territory, by the provisions of the following Articles of the present Convention: I to 12, 27, 29 to 34, 47, 49, 51, 52, 53, 59, 61 to 77, and 143. ;Article 33: **No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.**
I think the US is making the same mistakes in Iraq like Israel is doing in its occupied territories.
#Iraq