IAF: Accidental Deaths
BY Herschel Smith
18 years, 4 months ago
Thirty seven children have been killed in an IAF strike:
At least 54 Lebanese citizens were killed, at least 37 of them children, in the IAF strike on a building early Sunday, Lebanese police said. Dozens of others were reportedly trapped in the rubble. Several houses collapsed and a three-story building where about 100 civilians were sheltering was destroyed, witnesses and rescue workers said.
Israel, meanwhile, expressed “deep regret” for the deaths and said it would investigate the bombing, which drew widespread international condemnation.
“Israel deeply regrets, is greatly saddened, by this attack on innocent civilians in Lebanon. Israel takes full responsibility and is going to start an open investigation to find out how this happened,” government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said.
This is not helpful. Of course, since there is no strategic value to killing children, this was accidental. But look for it to be spinned the other way in the Muslim world.
At one point in time, during WWII for example, when bombs were “dumb” and could not be guided, civilian deaths were part of destroying the industrial infrastructure of a country in order to stop its ability to wage war. Even if unintentional, there were still civilian deaths. Attempting to keep non-combatants out of the way of harm is part of “just war theory.” Now with smart, stand-off weapons, the bar has been raised, so to speak. It is now the case that each and every time a civilian dies, there is condemnation since the expectation is perfection.
Compare and contrast that with the rockets being sent into Israel by Hezbollah. See a difference in the world’s expectations? We should have none of this about Hezbollah using the only weapons to which they have access. The fact still remains that just war theory prevents, to the degree we are able, the deaths of non-combatants. Hezbollah doesn’t do this, while Israel begins an investigation to assess their failure in this incident.
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