At Least 40 Civilians Dead In Tripoli Strikes: Vatican Official

Reuters ^ | 31 Mar 2011 | Reuters

[edpc]

ROME (Reuters) - At least 40 civilians have been killed in air strikes by Western forces on Tripoli, the top Vatican official in the Libyan capital told a Catholic news agency on Thursday, quoting witnesses.

"The so-called humanitarian raids have killed dozens of civilian victims in some neighborhoods of Tripoli," said Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, the Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli.

"I have collected several witness accounts from reliable people. In particular, in the Buslim neighborhood, due to the bombardments, a civilian building collapsed, causing the death of 40 people," he told Fides, the news agency of the Vatican missionary arm.

Libyan officials have taken foreign reporters to the sites of what they say were the aftermath of Western air strikes on Tripoli but evidence of civilian casualties has been inconclusive.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Why is it just “civilian deaths” that count?

I fully understand that if we are at war with another country, killing that country’s military men and women is acceptable. But we are NOT at war. Instead, we have a U.N. resolution saying that Libya isn’t allowed to fly warplanes.

So, I guess if we shot down a guy flying an airplane, again that might be “acceptable”, although if that pilot was just policing his area, and not firing on anybody, we have killed an “innocent”.

But what about bombing non-flying military targets? We were attacking soldiers who were set up in defense of a city in the country they served. Those soldiers had not launched an offensive attack, were not violating the no-fly zone, and at the time, were not even engaged in hostilities with “rebels” in their own country.

Their only “crime” was that they put on the uniform of their country, to serve their country in defense of the nation.

And we killed them. Why don’t their deaths count?

[CharlesWayneCT]

To make that more clear; We are NOT at war with Libya. We have no troops in Libya.

So, how were the soldiers were are killing supposed to avoid being killed? Were they supposed to surrender in a non-existant war to our non-existant troops? Were they supposed to wave their hands at our bombs, with white flags, so the bombs didn’t fall on them?

Were they supposed to turn traitor against the government of their own country to “prove” they were on the “right” side?

[iopscusa]

What this War needs is a a couple of Progressive (Chicken Hawk) Brigades from all the boosters in the West, sort of like the Spanish Civil War. Included could be the Prog-Repubs under Bill Kristol and the Prog-Demos under Ed Schultz. Let’s get them booted up and on the ground as soon as possible to train and lead these spare freedom fighters!

[dfwgator]

I propose Rush’s All-American First Cavalry Amazon Battalion.

[iopscusa]

Excellent idea! Rush’s All-American First Cavalry Amazon Battalion, they can bring the cigars and liquor. Now what about the Dr. Krauthammer Medics Battalion as well as the National Review Nancey-boy Mess group!