[lbo-talk] Norman Geras on the morality of the just war.

[Stephen E Philion]

justin wrote: 
All that said, there is a double standard that a lot
of liberals use, that when out forces wipe out a
weedding party by mistake in Afghanistan, oops, sorry,
but if a bomb planted by resistance fighters in Iraq
and aimed at a police station blows up a bus full of
children, Outrage! Terrorism!

--it has something to do with the sunday football like presentation of 
the war on CNN et al...which values pictures of victims of 
the 'terrorism' of the 'terrorists' and largely ignores the far more 
massive 'collateral damage' of the 'good guys' (or as judy woodruff 
called them yesterday on CNN...'the allies')... 
remember when the US shot into a crowd in fallujah at the start of the 
occupation? compare the minimalist coverage of that with the coverage 
of the deaths of civilians caused by the 'terrorists'...and the far 
greater anger in the media expressed toward the latter...
the message? plain and unmistakable. only when Iraqis are victims of 
the 'bad guys' do we care about Iraqi life...
not that that message would inspire anyone to pick up a gun to fight 
the occupying 'coalition' in Iraq...those are mostly outsider 
evildoers...

steve