More Somalia

Paul Wight p.wight at btinternet.com
Tue Sep 18 05:03:44 PDT 2001


Yes but my "raging morality" has a material basis; that children are not responsible for their actions and adults are. The soldiers on the ground signed up and knew what they were letting themselves in for when they went to a foreign country and attempted to detain somone elses leader. Effectively what you are saying :"As long as we can save just one of our poor soldiers lives all those children will have been worth it".

The raging moral crusade of the US to save the rest of the world from itself on the otherhand, is ideaologically based and meant to solve problems at home. And it is this and its associated military action that you support in pointing out that their intentions in Somalia were good, that Somalia was run by "vicious street gangs", "of course children are legitimate targets if they are cambatants", asking if we should send Dr Rogers in to sort out "murderous 12 year old bandits in Thailand" (you would prefer a helicopter gunship). But you concede that "in hindsight it would be better" if the US had never gone in - and also I hope that they made it very much worse. I hope some of that hindsight turns to foresight.

Paul


> Max Sawicky
>But if a toddler with apple cheeks
and an adorable curl is pointing an assault rifle at me, and if I can't avoid being shot at, I'm afraid I would shoot him.

In the Somali battle, U.S. troops were on the ground too, not just in helicopters, and they were besieged on all sides. Nor did they go into the city to shoot people. They went to capture a militia leader who was obstructing food relief efforts. If things had gone according to plan, there would have been few civilian casualties. You can criticize them for a bad plan and an associated thoughtless disregard for human life, but I don't think you can accuse them of striving for the actual result -- one which was a major political debacle for the military and the Clinton Administration.

I've read in the papers of a murderous bandit gang in Thailand or Burma, I forget which, lead by ten or twelve year-old twins. Would you send Mister Rogers out to deal with those youngsters?

Funny that for all the talk about materialist analysis here, there is a kind of raging moralism -- not particularly coherent in its own terms either -- that is substituted for analysis and politics.

mbs


>I read "Blackhawk Down." There is no question that
>the U.S. policy during the mission to snag
>Aideed was to shoot anybody in the way,
>but there also seems little doubt that
>women and children were among the combatants.

I think you entirely miss the point being made of the quote as a criticism of the military action, which is that they are condemned by their own words. Unless you think that it us justified to attack and kill children using helicopter gunships if they are "combatants". Paul



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