Killing Children is Never Legitimate

[babylonsister]

Killing Children is Never Legitimate

by John Friedrich


After spending time with our 2-year old daughter Rosie this morning, I turned on my computer and learned that scores of children in Gaza had been killed by an Israeli airstrike near a U.N. school. An AP photographer described the scene at a nearby hospital: “I saw women and men – parents – slapping their faces in grief, screaming, some of them collapsed to the floor. They knew their children were dead. In the morgue, most of the killed appeared to be children. In the hospital, there wasn’t enough space for the wounded.”

Since the invasion of Gaza began, more than 160 children have been killed according to Gaza medics, and hundreds more are seriously injured. Still more wounded children are suffering in homes lacking adequate food, heat and running water, with parents fearful that a trip to the hospital could be deadly. The organization Save the Children reports that 50,000 Gazan children were malnourished before the Israeli invasion, and that the crisis “endangers the lives of nearly every child in Gaza.”

“Conditions for parents and children in Gaza are dangerous and frightening,” said Maxwell Gaylard, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories. One Palestinian family lost five daughters. “We are scared that we can die at any moment” said 11 year old Mohammed Ayyad. Children who survive physically will suffer long lasting psychological trauma.

Living so far away from the Middle East, it’s easy to tune out the raging violence. Here in the U.S., there are thousands of distractions competing for our attention. But imagine, just for a moment, that you were in the shoes of a Gaza parent. How would you feel? What would you feel toward those who just fired the gun or dropped the bomb that killed your child?

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/07-0

[ShortnFiery]

1. OUTRIGHT "Killing" of our fellow human beings is NEVER JUSTIFIED.

You can try to justify it, but you can NOT. :(

But far too many ON BOTH SIDES get roped-in by our smarmy National "leaders."
http://www.warmadeeasythemovie.org/

[reggie the dog]

9. I disagree.

If you are enslaved or made to live as second class citizens you have a moral right to fight back by any means necessairy to achieve equality.

[ShortnFiery]

13. I'm not passing personal judgement, just that "Killing is Wrong" for everyone regardless of motive.

[bemildred]

2. Word. nt

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. How do you make peace with someone after killing their children? nt

[panader0]

4. The Arab children killed in Gaza and Iraq and Afghanistan

and all children killed by war everywhere are tragedies. Yet they get no media coverage. When John Travolta's son died while on vacation in the Bahamas, it was, and still is, all over the news. Don't get me wrong, I like John Travolta as an actor, and I think his son's death was horrible (it would crush me), but what about the hundreds in Gaza, and thousands upon thousands in Iraq?

[az chela]

5. When is killing little children ever right???

These innocent little ones are being slaughtered for no reason.This killing must stop.PEACE NOW
This planet has had enough war and if it continues nature will put a stop to this and we will all suffer.
Spare these beautiful little children and learn how to sit at a table and work out your differences.Quit being neanderthals

[Libertyfirst]

6. Killing children is never right. But amazing to me why the Gaza children

get so many threads and I can't find one for the kids dying in Iraq. It there some reason the Gaza kids are more valuable. Or does it mean that when you don't have anything else even the death of kids becomes a propaganda tool?

[babylonsister]

7. Start a thread about the hundreds of Israeli children who have been

killed in the past couple of weeks. I'm sure they will also be acknowledged. It just seems pretty one-sided to many of us.

[Libertyfirst]

10. And seems to me you still don't care about the Iraq children. Just my little question of motive.

[babylonsister]

12. You obviously haven't been here very long or you'd know

how many threads I've started about the Iraqi's plight. They now, unfortunately, sink for the most part. Not much I can do about that.

And PS, sorry about misreading your post. I thought you were wondering where coverage of the deaths of "I"sraeli children was, not "I"raqi.

[bemildred]

8. How about another rec? Anybody? nt

[pleah]

11. K&R

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Cronopio]

15. K&R and a note to the moderators to move to the Israel/Palestine forum. nt

[rhett o rick]

16. Why should this be moved. Killing children isn't unique to Israel/Palestine. nm

[babylonsister]

18. This is an editorial. I think. nt

[Cronopio]

22. There have been at least two editorials moved to the Israel/Palestine forum from this one today.

Apparently different moderators have different criteria for what constitutes an editorial.

[rhett o rick]

17. I agree. How many children have died in Iraq? How many terrorists have we killed.

How many children have we killed for each dead terrorist? It's too many.

I have come to loath the term "collateral damage".

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bemildred]

20. Teen charged with drowning newborn in toilet

She then dumped the body into the trash, authorities say

PORT ANGELES, Wash. — A 16-year-old girl suspected of drowning an infant boy in a toilet and throwing the body in the trash was charged with murder on Wednesday.

Lauryn Louise Last, of Port Angeles, was charged as an adult with first-degree murder in the death of the infant believed to be her son.

Last remained jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail with arraignment scheduled for Friday. She faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Last’s attorney, Suzanne Hayden, of the Clallam County public defender’s office, did not immediately return a phone call Wednesday.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6199555.html

[Recursion]

21. Welcome to DU

I'll be frank and say your stay may be a short one if this is "your issue".

That said, a lot of us on the pro-choice side are also troubled by how many unintended pregnancies are terminated with an abortion. Now, I can only guess from your language, but you seem to be someone who might self-describe as "pro-life"; if so, I'd just like to point out that President-Elect Obama wants to work with those of you who are "Pro-Life" to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies in the first place; I hope you would like to be involved in that.

[LeftishBrit]

24. America also kills lots of babies through the war in Iraq..

not to mention economic policies that cause much higher infant mortality rates among the poor than the rich. And many other countries do the latter.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

23. Truth_and_Reconciliation

Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa)

- Wikipedia ...

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a court-like body assembled in South Africa after the abolition of apartheid. Anyone who felt that he or she was a victim of its violence was invited to come forward and be heard. Perpetrators of violence could also give testimony and request amnesty from prosecution.

The TRC, the first of the nineteen held internationally to stage public hearings, was seen by many as a crucial component of the transition to full and free democracy in South Africa. Despite some flaws, it is generally (although not universally) thought to have been successful.

...Due to the perceived success of the reconciliatory approach in dealing with human-rights violations after political change either from internal or external factors, other countries have instituted similar commissions, though not always with the same scope or the allowance for charging those currently in power. The success of the "TRC method" versus the "Nuremberg method" of prosecution (as seen used in Iraq) is open for debate.

...the TRC Commission's effectiveness in terms of achieving those very things within its title is still debatable..

[Pluvious]

25. The Bible praises smashing babies of thine enemy

Psalm 137:9 (Young's Literal Translation)

Oh the happiness of him who doth seize, And hath dashed
thy sucklings on the rock!

[NikolaC]

26. K&R

:kick: Defenseless, innocent victims of this disaster. It makes me physically ill to think about how many children have been slaughtered around this world over the last few years. Yet, the Senate has unanimously voted to support the continued slaughter, IMO, with their "unanimous support" of Israel and their actions in Gaza.