killing iraqi children, and stating the obvious

Jacob Hornberger gets right to the point in a piece called Killing Iraqi Children on LRC today.

In a short editorial, the Detroit News asked an interesting question:

“Some war critics are suggesting Iraq terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi should have been arrested and prosecuted rather than bombed into oblivion. Why expose American troops to the danger of an arrest, when bombs work so well?”

Here’s one possible answer: In order not to send a five-year-old Iraqi girl into oblivion with the same 500-pound bombs that sent al-Zarqawi into oblivion.

Of course, I don’t know whether the Detroit News editorial board, if pressed, would say that the death of that little Iraqi girl was “worth it.” Maybe the board wasn’t even aware that that little girl had been killed by the bombs that killed Zarqawi when it published its editorial. But I do know one thing: killing Iraqi children and other such “collateral damage” has long been acceptable and even “worth it” to U.S. officials as part of their long-time foreign policy toward Iraq.

Read the whole article, which forcefully and effectively states the obvious.

Why bother stating the obvious? Because it needs to be said, that's why. Unfortunately, most Americans don't give two shits about innocent Iraqis, children or otherwise, so we need to constantly state the brutal facts about the ramifications of our reckless and immoral foreign adventures to "spread democracy". Everytime our warmongering countrymen brag about some "victory" in the war on terror, we need to remind them of the costs in blood and treasure.

Another good quote from the piece:

Suppose an armed robber enters a person’s home and the owner’s neighbor comes over to help him. The homeowner and his neighbor fire at the robber who fires back, killing both the homeowner and his neighbor.

Can the robber claim self-defense? No, because he had no right to be in the home in the first place. The intruder is guilty of murder, both morally and legally, because he doesn’t have the right to be where he is when he shoots the homeowner and his friend.

The situation is no different in Iraq because U.S. soldiers don’t have any right to be there...

I'm pissed off more and more every day about what's being done in our country's name, and after reading a column like this one by Hornberger it's hard not to get totally depressed and angry at the same time. What would be far, far worse, however, would be if there were no Hornbergers nor all the other heroic writers publishing such columns that state the obvious. If we ever reach that point, then all hope is lost for our country.