White House 'outraged' aid workers killed in IDF strike; Biden calls José Andrés, founder of World Central Kitchen
For context, let's look back a few years ...
Remember when the US was leaving Afghanistan in August of 2021? Do you recall this event? ... US military admits it killed 10 civilians and targeted wrong vehicle in Kabul airstrike.
That drone strike that killed 10 civilians in their vehicle, including 7 children, was deemed an "honest mistske" by the US ... ‘Honest mistake’: US strike that killed Afghan civilians was legal – Pentagon. No one was held accountable.
And, there was no "outrage" from the Biden White House about that.
And this is just one example. The US certainly has caused more than its share of unintended civilian deaths during wars. An example from The New York Times in 2021 ...
Civilian Deaths Mounted as Secret Unit Pounded ISIS
A single top secret American strike cell launched tens of thousands of bombs and missiles against the Islamic State in Syria, but in the process of hammering a vicious enemy, the shadowy force sidestepped safeguards and repeatedly killed civilians, according to multiple current and former military and intelligence officials.
The unit was called Talon Anvil, and it worked in three shifts around the clock between 2014 and 2019, pinpointing targets for the United States’ formidable air power to hit: convoys, car bombs, command centers and squads of enemy fighters.
But people who worked with the strike cell say in the rush to destroy enemies, it circumvented rules imposed to protect noncombatants ...
You can read more about this at the Wikipedia page, Operation Inherent Resolve, under "Casualties" and "Talon Anvil" ... the civilian death counts are horrible.
We don't have a whole lot of high moral ground from which to be "outraged" at Israel.
As they say, two wrongs don't make a right (and multiple wrongs don't make a right either). We (the US) were totally not in the right the way we handled those situations. That doesn't mean we shouldn't say something when we see an ally making the same mistakes.
ReplyDeleteYes, maybe Israel wasn't careful enough, but it isn't like they decided on purpose to kill aid workers. Why is Biden "outraged" about what was an accident, when we have made similar mistakes?
ReplyDeleteSince this war started I've been amazed to see the attitude of almost everyone towards Israel. We hold them to a standard higher even than the one we hold ourselves to. We believe the worst about them in every situation, before all the facts even come out. We accuse them of genocide and using food as a weapon of war, even though what they have actually done to protect and help civilians is more than anyone else in a war has ever done. Meanwhile there's never a mention of Hamas, who brought all of this on and is still holding prisoners, still firing rockets, still killing soldiers, I'm not Jewish, so maybe that's why I'm surprised about this. But it makes me upset, and so I post
ReplyDeleteNo argument from me about Hamas, they are evil and they started this whole thing. I am afraid about the hostages, that many of them may not still be alive.The International community needs to push harder for an accounting of them.
ReplyDeleteYes, agree.
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