Policy

Michael Schwartz skriver en intressant krönika om de amerikanska flyganfallen som dödat otaliga civila i Irak, något som jag tidigare skrivit om här och här. Enligt Schwartz så är det felaktigt att tala om dödsfallet som "misstag", utan de är del av en medveten strategi där man använder sig av "smarta" bomber för att anfalla hus där rebeller tros gömma sig, även om civila befinner sig inne i huset:

One particularly vivid recent account by Washington Post reporter Ellen Knickmeyer discussed the impact of air power during the American offensive in Western Anbar province last November. Using testimony from medical personnel and local civilians, Knickmeyer reported that 97 civilians were killed in one attack in Husaybah, 40 in another in Qaimone, 18 children (and an unknown number of adults) in Ramadi, and uncounted others in numerous other cities and towns. (The U.S. military typically denied knowledge of these casualties.)

All of these resulted from the same logic and the same rules of engagement as the Baiji attack and in most cases the attacks seem to have been chosen in place of mounting ground assaults. In each case, "precision guided munitions" were used, and -- for the most part, as far as we can tell -- American forces destroyed mainly the targets they intended to hit. In other words, this mayhem was not a matter of dumb munitions, human error, carelessness, or gratuitous brutality. It was policy.

Civila dör alltså inte av misstag, utan det är en del av policy. Smaka på den. Läs hela artikeln.


Uppdatering: Den amerikanske tecknaren Ted Rall sätter bombanfallen i ett perspektiv:

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