Quote:
Originally posted by Ronn_Bman:
Just what I said. You felt the need to break it down. 4 dead contractor = x amount of dead Iraqis.
All that death and misery IS shameful, but what does math have to do with it?
"450 dead and 1000 injured Iraqis FOR 4 dead security contractors" like there is might be an acceptable number?
What's worse is that sounds like "it's ONLY 4 dead security contractors, so we have to kill thousands of Iraqis".
I know, just another adhom/strawman. That's all I've got, right?
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The relevancey lies in the fact that the US commander involved stated that Falluja would be 'pacified' as a result of the deaths of those US citizens. The current casualty toll is a direct result of the process of pacification.
While there is definately some merit in pointing out that insurgents have been killing US troops in the region, it is worth pointing out that most of the townspeople had not been a part of that action. Indeed, according to the administration it was the work of a small minority and 'foreign fighters' - so unless the administration was lying, a good proportion of those who are dying as a result of the air-strikes had nothing to do with the insurgency - nor with the deaths of the us citizens last week.
Certainly, according to the pictures coming out of Falluja (every bit as horrifying as the pictures of the previous week), at least some of those killed couldn't possibley have been a part of the militia:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exer...A425192815.htm
(
Warning: these images are not suitable for children).
But those are pictures that you won't see on western TV because we don't want to know when we perform barbaric acts - that's something that only the other side is capable of...
But no, in the end it isn't a maths game. One death of one innocent person is one too many. Time to call an end to the pacification process as it doesn't seem to have provided a pacific situation for either the region or the country.