Kill the children--Anybody have a problem with that?

[gottaB]

I ran across a communiqué from UNICEF while combing the news, UNICEF condemns killing of children in ongoing Iraq fighting, and I was struck by an assertion made by Carol Belemay, Unicef's Executive Director:

"Children have the right to continue their education, and to do so safely, even when they live in the midst of conflict," Bellamy said. "They must feel free to exercise that right, and they must feel safe going to and from school. In fact, everywhere children spend time, whether on a bus, in a health center, at a school, or on a playground, must be treated as a zone of peace."

It's absurd. Please don't kill the children because they have a right to an education.

Surely among all of our internationally recognized human rights there's a right to not be killed? Or is that not a secular, legal thing, the right not to be killed?

Pope Jean Paul, who leads the world's largest organization of Christians (over 1 billion), the pope understands the right to life. In his Easter address he prayed, "May world leaders be confirmed and sustained in their efforts to resolve satisfactorily the continuing conflicts that cause bloodshed in certain regions of Africa, Iraq and the Holy Land" (A worldwide celebration of Easter....) Oooh, that's Harsh.

Reportedly Easter attendance was low at Virgin Mary Catholic Church in Baghdad. I will assume that the absenteeism was because of the fears of death and injury that Director Belemay noted, and not motivated by disagreements with the Pontiff's politics.

Why should I be sarcastic? Because we all know as sure as the sun rises in the east that if the Masters of War were using these deadly methods to stunt the educational development of Iraqi fetuses, there'd be hell to pay. That's the doctrine, baby. Love it or leave it.

Oi Weh.

[Karenina]

1. It's NOT the soldiers' fault.

So STOP SAYING THAT!!!

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Four schoolchildren were killed by gunfire in Baghdad on Sunday, shortly after a roadside bomb ripped through a U.S. military vehicle, witnesses said.
Some witnesses said the children, all aged around 12, were shot dead by U.S. troops who had opened fire randomly after the blast on Canal Street in eastern Baghdad.

more

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4930388

[gottaB]

2. And what's Bill Kristol--Chopped Chicken Hawk?

Not to single out just any one of Ken Lay's buddies. If we're making a list and checking it twice, I want to see all the enablers and profiteers indicted for war crimes, and of course the Bloodlusty Cadre of the Chickenhawk International. From Antonin Scalia to Cheney to Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Bremer, to the generals Kimmit and Sanchez and all the way down pfc Itchy Trigger Finger. These guys are like gangsters, and that's how we should go after them. We don't exculpate pfc Itchy Finger, but we keep our sights trained on the ring leaders.

RICO?

[DarkPhenyx]

3. It isn't the soldiers fault. n/t

[gottaB]

6. At some point killers must be held accountable for the killed

I'm not saying this is such a case (the shootings on Canal Street) because the facts aren't known, but without any accountability the killings just escalate.

Insurgents blow up a schoolbus. I accuse them, and so does the mayor of Basra. Let them defend their action in a court of law.

US soldiers drop some tonnage on a mosque, killing dozens of innocents, I accuse them, and....

You don't?

[gottaB]

7. updated info on shootings on Canal Street

From Al Jazeera, Baghdad children killed in crossfire.

To me that's a more probable scenario than as originally reported, that the kids were shot by "random" shooting.

I stand by my opinion that it's important to ask questions about all of these killings, and assign blame as warranted.

[DarkPhenyx]

8. Not always.

Accusation and blame are not always appropriate, even when the people doing the killing are known.

[gottaB]

12. Under what conditions does one assign blame?

Right now the Reuters version of the Canal Street shootings is making the international papers, even though the Al Jazeera follow-up is more objective and less damning to occupation soldiers.

Also, there's a picture of Sara Abdullah, 12 years old, lying in hospital.



http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3562636&thesection=news&thesubsection=world

Where is the appropriateness? In being silent, or temperate in our criticisms?

I was googling names of the dead, and came across the memorial page from Iraq Body Count:

http://www.iraqbodycount.net/names.htm

And it's depressing cause it's all like, missile, aerial bombardment, gunfire, mortar round, unexploded cluster bomblet, tank rounds, car bomb....Surely there's a rational of warfare that would explain away each and every one of those killings, and just as surely, there are laws of warfare that would prevent such violence in the first place, were they observed and enforced.

All I'm asking, is like, Where are the adults? Is nobody responsible for keeping the peace here?

It's unacceptable.

[Mika]

9. Hey, get with the program..

US boots on the ground/planes in the air. Expect "random" gunfire.

---

... because our Bonesman is better than their Bonesman

[gottaB]

11. I see the wisdom in your argument

That a war of aggression is criminal, I think we agree.

But I do expect better conduct of our soldiers, because we claim to be a nation of laws. We should be regarding the Geneva protocols as a bare minimum, and other agreements like the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states:

Article 6

1. States Parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life.

2. States Parties shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child.

And blah blah don't destroy the children blah blah. And this is something we've ratified, so, color me an idealistic fool, but I don't see the problem with asking that it be upheld.

[Guava Jelly]

4. We only care about

Unborn White babies.
well until they are born then we want to kill them if they smoke a joint

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Bullshit. We're every bit as concerned about unborn black

babies. Then they get born and we have to put them in detention to get them off the welfare rolls.

[Character Assassin]

10. I'm concerned about adults steeped in their own, willful ignorance

If you're going to use empty, hollow rhetoric, at least try and make it look like you're trying, hmmmm?

[gottaB]

13. You want to get your outrage on--go for it

Abe Lincoln said, "To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men."

But, Abe, look at what we're up against. Like the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Op. cit). What's more absurd, that it needed to be spelled out that children have the right not to be killed, or that it took 6 articles before it was mentioned?

And the implications, as if it hadn't quite been covered in international law prior to that point.

It's all an outrage to me.

[gottaB]

14. One Last Kick--three cheers for the "culture of life"

:shrug: