Many of us bloggers have been ranting about the amount of civilians that are killed in our many, many wars…..how the US tries to justify or just plain deny that these casualties are actually happening.
Of course we could always write them off as “collateral damage”…..anything to get the “bad guy”, right?
I know there can be no rules in a war….well that is just not right…there are rules ans a civilized nation should abide be the set of rules in war.
Rule 1. The parties to the conflict must at all times distinguish between civilians and combatants. Attacks may only be directed against combatants. Attacks must not be directed against civilians.
But what if the nation makes up its own rules for civilians in a war zone?
Though the Pentagon has mostly issued blanket denials whenever they’re caught killing civilians in airstrikes against ISIS targets anyhow, officials say their eagerness to escalate the air war against ISIS targets has seen the implementation of new rules allow the US to kill larger numbers of civilians per attack.
The details are still scant, with the official rules likely to remain a secret, but officials say they have implemented a “sliding scale,” based on the region being targeted and the “opportunity.” In some cases, US airstrikes will be allowed to kill 10 civilians per strike.
So it comes down to a numbers game, right?
That is an original tactic…..NOT! We played that game, the numbers game, in Vietnam….only in that case the numbers were exaggerated upwards….in this case I am sure they will be exaggerated in the opposite direction……down.
Look at the conflict in Yemen…….
…….human rights report on Saudi Arabia, the State Department ignored thousands of civilian casualties from the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen and overlooked the widespread use of illegal cluster munitions by the bombing coalition.
Saudi Arabia launched an air campaign in Yemen last March after Houthi rebels in Yemen threatened the rule of the Saudi-backed president. The Saudi military has been widely criticized for targeting civilians, destroying homes, schools, and hospitals, and using internationally banned cluster munitions.
Civilian casualties are acceptable as long as it is supported by the US……sorry…I have a real problem with all this….I do not think that the destruction of an entire family to get one bad guy is good policy.
A primary characteristic of all politicians at almost every level, as well as of their myrmidons, professional soldiers, police, etc., is the ability to objectify their victims, thus removing them from their need to feel any guilt over causing them harm. After all they weren’t ‘people’, they were ‘non-combatants’, or, ‘collateral damage’, ‘resisting legitimate authority’, none of which implies any humanity, or even a right to life. This ‘skill’ is practiced and honed from birth, given justification by every delusion they have which entitles them to so objectify other people, such as the ‘rightness’ of their religion, the ‘rightness’ of their stated political aims, or the ‘rightness’ of their ‘wish to bring the benefits of commerce and democracy, communism, monarchy, or, whatever. to those they wish to oppress….
Fuck ’em. They are all clinically insane, and deserve whatever happens to them…. as long as it involves a nasty, slow death….
gigoid, the dubious
Hmm… I guess I’m not feeling particularly generous today, in re: forgiveness….
Oh, well. Fuck ’em anyway.
gigoid
LOL c
As I said elsewhere recently…”To the average American, an Arab life is valued about the same as the lint between my butt cheeks.” If this story is to be believed at all, it seems the US military values Arab lives considerably more than the American public does. Almost 3/5ths of a person, I’d say. 🙂
I’m sure the calculations are nowhere near as “scientific” or “humanitarian” as made out to be. And the clear majority of attacks fall under the more flexible “dynamic” attack category. I’m sure that’s where nearly all the civilian carnage lies. Probably to be buried by the “All males killed are automatically enemy combatants rule” which I assume in still in effect. That covers almost 50% of civiliian deaths, even without having to make shit up! (Which I’m sure they’re doing.)
But on the “upside”, at least it seems they have a procedure in place to make those callous GMC-like “risk/reward” calculations. (See: the killer ignition switch that kept being put in GM cars for over 10yrs) And I am glad the riskiest stuff (supposedly) makes it the highest up the food chain. Because that means you can pin it all on them, not some no-name shadow killing in obscurity. Not that anyone will ever be punished. But you can at least blame them with confidence.
As for the Saudi ruling class…It’s been clear for a loooong time that, not only do they not give a fuck about Arab lives, they don’t even give a fuck about Saudi lives! As such, they’re the perfect “stalking horse” for America to use to blow the fucking shit out the entire Yemeni population.
1) It’s Arabs finally “doin’ it for themselves.” (with American weaponry they mostly got for free.)
2) Can’t blame us, Arab world! We don’t control them. They control us!
3) Much less American media attention.
There is the key…the media. It drives the American paradigm.
(Re: Saudis doing US dirty work.)
If only Hitler had convinced the Austrians to invade Poland in exchange for not being annexed, history might be very different…and the History channel even moreso.
The History Channel would have no programming…
It is not complicated. Just plan the tactics, plan the strategy, deliver the weapons, do the killing, win the battle and get on with it. Civilians have always died in wars. Civilians will always die in wars. That is one of the inescapable facts about war … people die … people who need to die are killed … people who shouldn’t die are caught in the crossfire. It has been the same since the times of antiquity and it will be the same until there are no more humans left to kill one another and no amount of complaining, pleading, begging, rationalising or objecting is going to make a dent in the reality of war no matter who it is doing the wish dreaming.
You may accept it but I cannot not…
To each their own as it were, eh?
Yep….diss what we cannot accept….
Absolutely! If enough people do enough dissing then something might get done. Until then nothing gets done. That too is The American Way.
Something I cannot accept….so I will continue to point out stuff for people to consider.
Me too — in my own unique and irritating way … snark!
Somebody has to care there is enough turning away….
It is good for someone to care but it is better if the caring someone has the resources and the power to get something done, isn’t it?
Yes I will agree but my lack of resources will not stop me….just maybe I can get through to the “thick headed”.
The thick headed are sometimes thick headed indeed and even intellectual sledge hammers — or even intellectual jack hammers don’t make a dent and I think a lot of them program themselves to be that way. I do not think a lot of it is coincidental. Why kick against the pricks as the old saying goes?
Because I can. The only reason I need.
“Caught in the crossfire” is certainly true. But thanks to all the effort humanity has put into technology designed to more effectively kill humans, the size of the crossfire zone has grown exponentially. Before 1900, you’d be lucky to fire a bullet from a muzzle-loaded weapon that would travel 100M. Today, you can wipe out an entire city with one press of a button from the other side of the planet.That’s a pretty fucking big crossfire zone! It’s no wonder the percentage of civilians killed during war has also “rocketed”.
Sure intentional civilian slaughters have always happened. But such slaughters were once widely considered a sign of barbarity, against the Laws of War, etc. Even civilians of perpetrator nations, were often made uncomfortable by the civilian slaughters their own military conducted. Even when a “superior race’s” military slaughtered civilians of an “inferior race”, that nation’s civilians were occasionally made uncomfortable by it. But today, people just toss their hands up in the air and say “Shit happens. As long as I’m fine, that’s all that matters” , “It’s only a bunch of sand-niggers”, etc.
But civilians have increasingly been considered “fair game”. One need only to think of Dresden Hiroshima, or The Blitz, to realize how even the most “civilized” nations intentionally target civilians.
“it will be the same until there are no more humans left to kill one another and no amount of complaining, pleading, begging, rationalising or objecting is going to make a dent in the reality of war no matter who it is doing the wish dreaming.”
Unless, of course, one dreams of a human-free future. That’s becoming more & more possible by the year. For some reason, we keep designing more powerful weaponry that can be operated more easily and with less risk to the perpetrator….if not fully automated weaponry. Right now, they’re working on automated weapon systems that choose their own targets independent of human beings. How could that possibly go wrong???
Soon, Skynet will be able to slaughter every single civilian on Earth. Huzzah! Mission Accomplished!
I am sure the populations of other planets than our own have found ways to turn their environment into non-inhabitable wastelands completely devoid of all signs of life. Why should we be any different? You are right on all the points you have presented here.
Maybe that is why they are looking for other worlds to invade/convert/befriend……
There probably are planets that haven’t been rendered lifeless wastelands. But that’s because they’re inhabited by intelligent life forms. We’re just a bunch of retarded, ultra-violent, primates; indistinguishable from those damn dirty apes in the opening scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey. (the Dawn of Man segment climax)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wstIBq2H0z8
We’ve proven time & time again that we’re more than willing to harm others, or even risk our own lives, for next to nothing.
The opening segment looked like my ex-wife’s family at a reunion….
I like your independence and confidence. My thick headed ttitude is based on the same concept … “Because I can.” I’m loving it!
I know of no other way to be….it gives me purpose and that is all a man can ask
Reblogged this on saywhatumean2say.
TY for all your help…..chuq