Collateral

This is a slightly modified post originally posted by me on Thaa Rev's blog, Manual Override:

How cognizant of collateral damage should leaders be when making the decision to use armed force? Per international law, attacks cannot be indiscriminate. Article 57 of the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions states that, in an international conflict, “constant care shall be taken to spare the civilian population, civilians, and civilian objects.” Also, collateral damage from an attack has to be proportional to the anticipated military advantage. [Crimes of War, Gutman and Rieff, 1999]

Israeli troops have often used armed force to assassinate Hamas leaders and other Palestinians who Israel has deemed are either enemy combatants or are controlling enemy combatants. As often as not these attacks kill innocent bystanders. Israel’s rationalization of the collateral damage is that it’s proportionate to the anticipated military advantage. By killing a high ranking Hamas member, his bodyguards and a half dozen bystanders, Israel would argue, hundreds of innocent Israeli civilians would be saved.

Palestinian suicide bombers take no care to limit civilian casualties; obviously, their methods are designed to maximize these non-military deaths. In my opinion, the Palestinians who engineer these attacks and those who enact them are murderers, not soldiers. Their chosen methods, mass murder of civilians, make it difficult for me to empathize with their plight or argue on their behalf. Thankfully, for Israelis and Palestinians alike, a change in management on the Palestinian side may be the beginning of the end of this stupidity and cruelty.

As far as the American military is concerned I think the US often tries to adhere to the ‘rules of war’. I recall early reports of troops taking care not to direct fire against mosques and hospitals in Iraq until fire was received by them. The development of smart weaponry is not only better to kill with, but by design limits civilian casualties (if limiting civilian casualties was not in our interest, wouldn’t weapons designers build huge payloads and be less precise?). I don’t know if I’ve ever read about a war without collateral damage, but I do believe that the American military generally tries to avoid it. (tactics utilized in Vietnam are an obvious exception to this rule: carpet bombing, free fire zones, etc)

The exact opposite of trying to limit collateral damage is to purposefully target non-military civilian targets. The 9/11 hijackers fall into this end of the spectrum. And again, I see those 19 men as little more than mass murderers with the technical skills to allow them to pull off their mission. I believe they had intellectual blinders on allowing them to rationalize the murder of thousands of innocents and the cruelty to put their plans into action. And I hate people like that.

Point, Non Counter Point

A Pre-Stein Night observation: Sometimes it happens at Stein Night, and other conversations where topics lead to heat, where a point will be made. At this point in the conversation a rebuttal of the point may be in order, but instead of a rebuttal the second person in the conversation doesn’t even address the first point, they go and make their own (seemingly unrelated) point. This is not an efficient way to get at the truth. It is a rhetorical trick. I think the goal is to divert the momentum of the conversation away from an unpleasant truth or a difficult and precarious rebuttal.

To be clear, here is an example:

3XHAR: A

NotHAR: Oh? What about B?

3XHAR: You have not addressed A.

NotHAR: You have not addressed B!

I’ve noticed this a lot when politics comes up. Oh, and it doesn’t help to address B. NotHAR will just move on to C and D without ever addressing A. A just ends up standing out there all alone like one of those high school dreams where you’re standing there in your underwear in the middle of class…

3XHAR: Bush/Clinton did this awful thing. Please acknowledge it’s awfulness or defend it.

NotHAR: Clinton/Bush did this other unrelated thing! What about that? Now you defend that.

3XHAR: Uh… you haven’t addressed my first statement…

Please, just answer the question. If your rebuttal is ripped apart, then either refine and restate it or change your mind.

Interestingly, this happens with blogs too. I think it’s because there are conversational correlates to blogging that make it an easy trap to spring… Well, we’ll see if this happens tomorrow at Stein Night.

We Put the Cute in Execute!

Firstly, for the record, I'm anti-death penalty. Moreso because of procedural issues than moral ones. It's easier to reverse a mistake if the mistakee is alive. Would I rather have murderers in prison for life or killed by the state? It's sort of a wash for me. I don't get all worked up about it. Life in prison seems like a just punishment that protects the law-abiding. Anyway.

Per BBCNews.com today: “Nearly 4,000 people were executed worldwide in 2004 - the highest number in nearly ten years, say Amnesty International.
The human rights group found that China carried out more executions than all other countries combined - at least 3,400.
Iran came second, with at least 159, followed by Vietnam. The US were fourth in the table with 59 executions in 2004.
The 3,797 executions in 2004 are said to be the second-largest annual total in the last 25 years. Amnesty's UK director Kate Allen described the figures as "alarming".”

Hmmm… as a point of order, I find it hard to believe that North Korea didn’t kill more of it’s citizens then the other four countries mentioned. Per a USNews.com article (6/23/03): “In the past three decades, some 400,000 North Koreans are believed to have perished in the gulag.” See, now to me, those numbers are alarming. Perhaps they are not alarming to Ms Allen because North Korea has stated it’s most recent public execution was in 1992. Per Amnesty International’s website: ‘Amnesty International received a letter from the North Korean authorities in 1993 which acknowledged the public execution of one person in 1992.’ HARHARHAR. Well, that’s that then. I mean, the North Koreans would never lie. That must be why they’re not included in the new study; because they haven’t executed any of their own citizens since 1992!

Still, I wonder what the deal is with that.

Guns/Women

Found an extremely funny blog, thanks to the Daou Report:

http://www.kimdutoit.com/ee/index.php/rant/

It not only features many pictures of guns, but also women with guns! Beware: I think the blogger is a little conservative…

Hey, who is the deadliest woman you've noted in reality or fiction?

A few come to mind:
Yu Shu Lien (the young female from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon);
Lyudmila Pavlichenko- per Red Army records she killed 309 enemy soldiers in WWII ... dam.
Mystique- Magneto's primary hench-person from the X-Men comics and movies!

Sin City

Wonderful. One of my new favorite movies, right up there with Brazil, Miller's Crossing, The Godfather I and II, Last of the Mohicans, Heat, Apocalypse Now, Jaws, Leon the Professional, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and Lord of the Rings.

Sin City's violence was gorgeous to watch... which is probably bad in some sense. But I like my violence stylized and beautiful. Is it realistic? Not in the least! But real violence turns my stomach. The filmwork, black and white with the occasional splash of color was unique. The dialogue and characters are over the top in a way that I found fun. You’ll know by the first story if you’re going to like it, hate it or love it. By the time Marv finishes his good deeds you should know if your staying or should be walking out.

Oh, as far as adaptations go, it’s right there at the top with Lord of the Rings. Movie Jedi and friend, Dtorg, states the movie was story-boarded straight from the comic. It shows. The graphic novels by Frank Miller filled me with shock and awe (they were sooooo dark and fun). The movie stayed true to the material and succeeded because of it.

Wacky Road Trip III Recap

Wacky Road Trip III was interesting and memorable. The crew had many adventures, only two of which I’ll touch upon.

The coolest adventure was the Air and Space Museum with its Blackbird (per The Economist, 3/25/04: ‘The SR-71, an American spy plane, has been the fastest publicly acknowledged aircraft for almost 40 years. It has a top speed of just over Mach 3—in other words, three times the velocity of sound, or about 3,000 kilometres per hour.’). Drool. It just looked so cool. Also there, in this immense hanger outside DC was a Concord jet and the Enola Gay. Of course the Bush/Cheney junta has changed the name to the Enola Straight. (This was the second change, the first during the Clinton presidency was to the Enola Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell)

The most poignant event was our tour of memorials; Lincoln, Jefferson, FDR, Vietnam War, Korean War, WWII, Washington, and George Mason. It is important as a people to pay your respects to those who fought and died ensuring your rights. It was moving to see a WWII veteran at that memorial. The contrast of this old, wheelchair bound man against the backdrop of the immense memorial with its twin fountains and commemorative pillars of stone was moving. I debated thanking him, but decided not to. He seemed lost in thought or reminiscence and I did not want to intrude.