Reply #18: P.S. Civilians are always killed in wars. ALWAYS. [View All]

[stevenleser]

I see a lot of antiwar folks engaging in red herrings like "Civilians got killed" or, "They used drones" when what they really want to say is "I don't want war to happen, I think war is wrong, and I want this war to stop".

I don't know when someone decided that just being straightforward and saying "I don't want war to happen, I think war is wrong and I want this war to stop" was a bad thing to do but they were incorrect. The honest and straightforward approach is always better.

Anyone who knows the history of war is going to look at your assertion that "Civilians got killed" and they are going to think that you are raising a red herring about that particular war since civilians dying and being killed is something that always happens in war. The UN in fact has a standard that deals with civilians being killed in war that says the amount of civilians who died has to be completely disproportionate to the objective one was attempting to attain before such a thing raises to the level of war crime. The UN sent back a response to that effect to those who objected to the US' initial bombardment of Iraq en route to the invasion.