US hypocrisy re Gaza civilian casualties
We all want to minimize civilian casualties, but wars in urban areas are chaotic. According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2009, of the victims of U.S. airstrikes in Iraq from March 2003 to March 2008, nearly half, 46% were women and 39% were children.Lest anyone complain about Mohammed Deif's wife and child being killed (with him?), consider this about Osama Bin Laden's sudden demise:
By contrast, according to the UN, (Not friendly to Israel) 12% of all Palestinians killed in Gaza were women and 23% were children, far lower than the percentages killed in U.S. airstrikes in Iraq.
However, men, most likely combatants, killed by the US only 15 %, but most casualties by Israel have been men 65%!
Despite this superior Israeli record the White House, Pentagon, and State Department have all accused Israel in the harshest terms of doing too little to prevent civilian casualties. Yet Israel's record on this score is much better than America's.
Osama bin Laden was killed in the raid, as were three other men and a woman: bin Laden's adult son Khalid,[90][91] bin Laden's courier (Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti), al-Kuwaiti's brother Abrar, and Abrar's wife Bushra.[57]When Israel killed 'Palestinian' terrorist Abu Iyad in 1988, his family looked on unharmed.
On the other hand, when the US killed Anwar al-Awlaki, they also killed Anwar al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son as "collateral damage" in a car with another person - so, Awlaki (target) died, the other man (who may or may not have been a target) died and a teenager died. Score? Either 33% or 66% collateral on one hit - and both Awlaki and his son were US citizens.
The US shouldn't talk to Israel about civilian casualties....
Labels: civilian casualties, Gaza, Hamas, human shields, IDF, Operation Protective Edge, United Nations
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:49 PM
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