Double standards policy (Great Jakarta Editorial)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

Innocent civilians have been injured and killed. The infrastructure of a nation has been attacked with bombs and missiles. Women, children, the elderly and the sick have all been ruthlessly slain. Typically reports like this cause outrage around the world. Imagine the outcry if this was happening on American or British soil; but, of course, it is not.

Lebanon has again come under attack, leaving many innocent civilians dead. Why? Can there be any justification for these acts, which in any other circumstances would very definitely fall under the category of acts of terror? The justification that is put forward is that the bombings and missile attacks on Lebanon are part of the so-called "war on terror".

It has even been oddly claimed that the attacks on Lebanon are a good thing for both Israel and the people of Lebanon. The claim has been made that the Israelis have sought to root out the "extremist", "fanatical" elements that are collectively described as Hezbollah.

That awful and quite sickening expression of "collateral damage" has been used to suggest the innocents, who are literally being slaughtered, are just an unfortunate side-effect of the harsh medicine of military attack.

But is this really a kind of medicine? Will military escalation really cure anything? It seems highly unlikely. It has been said that Israel, with clear support from Washington, was pursuing military targets before diplomatic efforts stepped in to curtail the bombings, but this is hard to digest.

More: http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20060721.E02&irec=1

[babylonsister]

1. . thanks. nt