The Free View-- weblog of a presidential candidate

U.S. war priorities shift away from disarming Iraq

This article in Forbes discusses how the priorities in the justifications list for this war have been shifting to suit the moods and nuances of the war as it plays out. The principle shift is from finding WOMD to "freeing the Iraqi people", though other shifts include the ratcheting up of "terrorism" talk, tying into the extreme tactics the Iraqis have resorted to in defending themselves.

I've certainly noticed a relentless refrain of pointing out how horrible the things that the Iraqi soldiers are doing are...while at the same time we hear little to nothing about how horrible the things the U.S. is doing are. Like we're the Lords of Mercy and they're the vicious savages. But which side has killed more innocent people in this war? Is suicide bombing invading U.S. soldiers markedly worse than gunning down women and children in a van? Or worse than what happened to these people?

From that last article:

Razzaq Kazem al-Khafaji said he lost his wife, six children, his father, his mother, his three brothers and their wives late Monday when their pickup truck was blown up by a rocket from a US Apache helicopter.

[That's 15 family members, in case you lost count.]

He lifted a sheet on one of the coffins and saw the mutilated bodies of his young children and then unveiled another coffin to find a dead child lying next to the remains of an infant, a pacifier still in her mouth.

And from the van shooting article:

[Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace]
"Our soldiers on the ground have an absolute right to defend themselves. They will always, if they can, find a way to stop a vehicle like that without having to actually to fire at it. But in the final analysis, when their lives are threatened, and of course they thought they were, they will shoot."

Note the little rhetorical hop-skip there at the end: "when their lives are threatened, and of course they thought they were..." Lots of people have tried to use the same hop-skip to justify the van shooting. "They were defending themselves." No -- they weren't. Those women and children did not pose a danger. To put the burden of fault on them -- to even suggest it or hint at it -- is both logically and ethically flawed. It does a disservice to the cause of justice. To say the troops "absolutely did the right thing" is repulsive. I don't blame the troops themselves...they were following an established rule and orders, and I don't doubt that they felt threat. But that situation was created by the U.S. government. Those women are innocent victims of the U.S. military action, and to imply anything other than that is dishonest, and simply adds more shame to their shameful deaths.