Atrocity
12/10/23 05:24
October 12, 2023 (Vol. 17 No. 41) - War, even that waged on behalf of a just cause, is intrinsically evil. It doesn't matter whether you are an adherent to the Ten Commandments or just someone who wants to stay on the right of the law, the killing of human beings is unacceptable. That being said, there are times when wars must be waged for a noble cause, such as wars of liberation or self-defense. A cruel fact of life is that sometimes innocent people are killed - so-called collateral damage. The fact that some people were in a wrong place at the wrong time doesn't necessarily justify their deaths. It just explains them. However noble or justified the cause, it is never morally or legally acceptable to target civilians. And yet, all nations have done it. For example, consider the fire bombing of Dresden in February 1945, in which Allied bombers killed 25,000 civilians in an effort to break German morale. One can argue that it served a greater good. But nearly 80 years later, can we be certain? This week, we have seen a new low in the panoply of human atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists against the state of Israel. In last Saturday's attacks, civilians were not collateral damage. They were brutally targeted. How in the name of anyone's vision of God can one justify the slaughter of infants and children? During the 17+ years of this blog, I have occasionally criticized Israel for its treatment of the Palestinian people. In my view, they had - and still have - legitimate grievances that should be addressed. But let me make this point absolutely clear: There is absolutely no justification for what Hamas perpetrated this week. And Israel is well within its rights to prosecute a war with the aim of eradicating Hamas. But I say that without joy, for I remember the words most-often credited to Mohandas Ghandi: "An eye for an eye will leave everyone blind." And is there any greater atrocity than that? That's it for now. Fear the Turtle.