There’s nothing we can do that would be worse than they do to each other.
That’s where civilized society differs from the barbarians. We do not slaughter innocent civilians. Accordingly, our military forces are trained to avoid civilian casualties.
Of course, in modern warfare, “collateral damage” can scarcely be avoided. The operative word, in the Just War doctrine, is that innocents may not be DIRECTLY targeted. I.e., we do our very best to avoid civilians, but unfortunately by unforeseen circumstances they sometimes fall into harm’s way.
The situation is made particularly difficult when fighting Muslim extremists, who have no compunction against fighting from positions where civilians are present, even hiding behind women and children while in firefights. We rightly consider this despicable; they have few moral qualms about such behavior. Still, the hallmark of a noble people is that we maintain our convictions in the face of great adversity.
Let us not stoop to the perverted logic of Arab terrorists who, for example, justify the slaughter of Jewish women and children because “the women will only bear more Jews, and the children will only grow up to be Israeli soldiers...” By that inhuman reasoning random killing of anyone can be “justified.”
As a nation we are, and I hope we shall always remain, better than that. As President Bush once said (not an exact quote; he may have been quoting someone): “America is great because it is good; if we cease to be good we shall no longer be great.”
That’s where civilized society differs from the barbarians. We do not slaughter innocent civilians. Accordingly, our military forces are trained to avoid civilian casualties.
Of course, in modern warfare, “collateral damage” can scarcely be avoided. The operative word, in the Just War doctrine, is that innocents may not be DIRECTLY targeted. I.e., we do our very best to avoid civilians, but unfortunately by unforeseen circumstances they sometimes fall into harm’s way.
The situation is made particularly difficult when fighting Muslim extremists, who have no compunction against fighting from positions where civilians are present, even hiding behind women and children while in firefights. We rightly consider this despicable; they have few moral qualms about such behavior. Still, the hallmark of a noble people is that we maintain our convictions in the face of great adversity.
Let us not stoop to the perverted logic of Arab terrorists who, for example, justify the slaughter of Jewish women and children because “the women will only bear more Jews, and the children will only grow up to be Israeli soldiers...” By that inhuman reasoning random killing of anyone can be “justified.”
As a nation we are, and I hope we shall always remain, better than that. As President Bush once said (not an exact quote; he may have been quoting someone): “America is great because it is good; if we cease to be good we shall no longer be great.”