Who kills civilians with impunity?

Who is taken to task for killing civilians?

From Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) blog

Editing, ending comment by Carolyn Bennett


FAIRNESS AND ACCURACY IN REPORTING (FAIR) is the national media watch group that has offered well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship since 1986. FAIR works to invigorate the First Amendment by advocating greater diversity in the press and by scrutinizing media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints.


As an anti-censorship organization, FAIR exposes neglected news stories and defends working journalists when they are muzzled. As a progressive group, FAIR believes that structural reform is ultimately needed to break up the dominant media conglomerates, establish independent public broadcasting and promote strong non-profit sources of information.

CASE IN POINT

Cluster bombs kill civilians no matter who uses them

USA’s LICENSE with impunity TO KILL CIVILIANS

·       Human Rights Watch criticized the U.S. for using cluster bombs in populated areas in Afghanistan, killing and injuring scores of civilians (Washington Post, 12/18/02).

·       Amnesty International (4/2/03) called the U.S.’s use of cluster bombs in civilian areas of Iraq ‘a grave violation of international humanitarian law.’ (See FAIR Action Alert, 5/6/03.)

·       NATO employed cluster bombs in its bombing of Serbia during the Kosovo War, with one attack killing 15 civilians in the town of Nis (BBC, 5/7/99);

·       More than 2,000 unexploded munitions from cluster bombs are estimated to remain on Serbian territory, continuing to endanger civilians (AFP, 3/10/09).

·       ‘Suspected militants’ attacked by a cluster bomb in Yemen in 2009 turned out to be ‘21 children and 20 innocent women and men’ (NewYorkTimes.com, 12/9/10) — all killed in the U.S. attack.

“… WikiLeaks revealed the U.S. colluded with the British government to circumvent the [Cluster Bombs] ban and allow U.S. cluster bombs to remain on British soil.

“WikiLeaks also disclosed that the U.S. has been lobbying countries to keep cluster bombs legal, arguing that they [cluster bombs] are ‘legitimate weapons that provide a vital military capability’ (Guardian, 12/1/10).”

MASS MEDIA LAMBASTES LIBYA’s KILLING CIVILIANS

“‘[Qaddafi] Troops Fire Cluster Bombs into Civilian Areas,’ declares a New York Times headline (4/15/11). The lead of the story makes clear that these weapons are considered in many countries to be illegal:

Military forces loyal to Col. [Muammar al- Qaddafi] have been firing into residential neighborhoods in this embattled city with heavy weapons, including cluster bombs that have been banned by much of the world.

C.J. Chivers’ Times’ story then explained why these weapons [cluster bombs] have been banned:

These so-called indiscriminate weapons, which strike large areas with a dense succession of high-explosive munitions, by their nature, cannot be fired precisely.

When fired into populated areas, they place civilians at grave risk.”

FAIR comments

“You can be sure none of the examples of U.S. use of cluster bombs in civilian areas prompted the New York Times to suggest that the use of these weapons by the U.S. justified military attacks on the United States in order to protect civilians.

“Moreover, you’d be hard-pressed to find [as in the Times article lambasting Libya] any descriptions in the Times of the ‘bits of human flesh’ resulting from any U.S. military action.”

FINALLY 

When are civilians dispensable and when are they not dispensable and by whom? Who decides — who should decide — the dispensability, indeed the worth and or relative worth of human life?  

I suggest that no one, no government should have this authority or impunity. Moreover, cluster bombs should be banned by all governments (offensive and preemptive war should be banned as well); and those who kill, no matter who they are or whom they kill, they should be brought before international criminal courts and prosecuted for their crimes.

News source

 “[Qaddafi]’s Cluster Bombs — and Uncle Sam’s” 04/16/2011 by Jim Naureckas, http://www.fair.org/blog/

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