« Bharatiya Blog Mela #5 | Main | Good Read »

Shanti, this is so horrible. That poor, poor woman. How can anyone consider beaming these pictures to the masses as anything other than a cruelty? And that ‘but you do the same at Gitmo, so don’t cry about the Geneva conventions’ crowd makes me insane. Anything, anything at all, can be excused, apparently, if it is against the Americans.

God bless that woman and her family.

Madhu, a similar incident was the turning point for me about the Middle-East conflict too - Remember the lynching of the two Israeli reservists in Ramallah? And then I read that one of the reservists’ wife called him on the cell phone. One of the guys in the lynch-mob picked up the cell phone and told her they just killed her husband and hung up on her.

It hit me like a hammer on my heart - I was horrified at the behavior, because as a married woman, I can understand what the poor wife must have gone through.

Let the other “peaceniks” cry rivers about how we are feeding till they get fat, the prosoners at Gitmo and how we are feeding the starved Iraqi POWs. I really don’t have any patience left for them - I hope the poor mother finds solace, but I think it is nothing short of torture to put a mother through horrific images like that.

Yes, I agree. Nothing worse for a mother than seeing her child dead!! :-(

But as always there are two sides to this too. These are horrific for Iraqi mothers.

I just hope that Saddam goes and the war ends as soon as possible!

Sameer, I agree but I think there is a difference between Iraqi soldiers deliberately executing and proudly parading American soldiers’ bodies to Iraqi civilians dying because they are caught in the cross-fire.

The difference is that Americans are not happy about the civilian deaths and are disrespecting or degrading the dead. In fact, the reason why American progress has been so slow is because of the deliberateness of the campaign and the extreme precaution being taken to avoid civilian deaths.

Don’t you think the war would be over a lot sooner and with a lot fewer casualties on the coalition side if they just carpet-bombed Baghdad instead of trying to lead a ground campaign with precisely chosen targets?

Yes, that would end the war real sonn, no doubt. But that strategy would also cause the demise of the Bush administration. As it is, Bush and co. are fighting a lone battle (with 50 other countries, as Condoleezza Rice likes to point out). With massive civilian casualties (that will result from a carpet bombing campaign) the Bush and Blair combo will be pushed into the tightest international corner possible. It would certainly be a political suicide for Bush.

For this reason and the fact that civilian casualties will be immense, the carpet bombing strategy is a bad idea. Moreover, the aim is not to defeat Iraq, but to eject Saddam. So, precise target bombing is the way to go.

The second reason is more right than the first one and regardless of the “motives”, I like the way the war is being conducted by the American side. I do hope it will be over soon.

Sameer, I don’t understand your point? :)

Of course Bush cares, because we are a democracy and leaders are, for the most part, accountable. Saddam was accountable to no one in Iraq and neither were the goons in the Baathist party (until now, that is).

That is why the moral equivalency game just doesn’t wash. You just can’t compare democracies and tyrannies (that’s why the UN is such a joke). So again, murdering POW’s and civilians caught in crossfire are not the same thing. Sad for all mothers yes, but a just society does not come from feeling bad about death, it comes from liberty and the will to protect it.

Good one, Madhu.

Killing their own citizens and blaming the “oppressors” for it is a time-honored ruse among the Palestinians. Seems like the Iraqis are picking up on it now. This missile that landed in the Baghdad marketplace, killing 14 Iraqis, was allegedly launched by coalition forces.

After investigating, the Pentagon denied these allegations, stating that all missile and bomb attacks had been carefully accounted for. They added that it was entirely possible that the Iraqis did this themselves.

Even so, you probably wouldn’t know this by watching the vapid traitors at CNN… at the slightest anomaly they’re first on the scene, ready to blame America for any mishap. I’d say they’re worse than al-Jazeera (whose web hosting, btw, is done by Hamas-friendly InfoComm right here in Richardson).

You hit it on the head, Gokul. I have also heard reports that the crater was too shallow to have been hit by an American missile.

Thanks for the info about the hosting - I live in Dallas too. Interesting.

Madhu, I really didn’t get the point your trying to make. If you were referring to my first point about civilian casualties, then well… take a look at CNN or any other channel and you’ll see how they’re trying to make a big deal about the dead American soldiers and how their mothers saw their bodies on TV. So if a just society doesn’t come out of feeling bad about death, then why all the brouhaha in the media. Human lives are equally valuable in America or Iraq or India. And thats what I was trying to get at.

For the innumerable good things about America, it has one big flaw. Its hugely narcissistic attitude. George Orwell’s words apply almost perfectly here… “Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them. There is almost no kind of outrage — torture, imprisonment without trial, assassination, the bombing of civilians — which does not change its moral color when it is committed by ‘our’ side… . The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.”.

Sameer, I think her point is that even though all deaths are painful, there is certainly a difference between people killed in cold blood and people killed accidentally.

Remember Kargil? thousands of people died on both side - but we still remember the name of Lt. Saurabh Kaliya, since he was not just killed in cold blood, but also maimed and mutilated - wouldn’t it have been horrific for his prents to see that on TV, before they knew their son was dead?

Sameer

the money part of the Orwell quote ‘torture, imprisonment without trial, assasination, the bombing of civilians..’

Do you think that the last part means accidental or purposeful bombing?


:)

When innocent civilians get caught in the crossfire in Kashmir between Indian security forces and ‘separatists’ or ‘jihadists’, what do most Indians think? Americans are not the only narcissists…..

SAURABH KALIYA should be given justice.AND PaKISTAN MUST ADMIT ITS MISTAKE THAT directly or indirectlyis supporting in running theTERRARIST CAMPS.`