[lit-ideas] Re: Civilian casualties in Iraq

  • From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 08:12:45 -0500

"No--please let's just hold the tension of the opposites for a little bit 
longer until we can find another creative solution here...a couple of little 
kids in Iran are going to become a medical researcher and discover the cure for 
what ails some of us...I'd rather make sure he and she get that chance... and 
their school and home both need to remain intact..."

Or, a couple of little kids will grow up and be nobodies ... I'd rather make 
sure he and she get that chance ...  Otherwise, thanks for everything you've 
written on this.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: 
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 2/6/2006 6:50:17 AM 
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Civilian casualties in Iraq


In a message dated 2/5/2006 11:46:44 P.M. Central Standard Time, 
lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Blaming the US for the total is not justified in my view
because included are insurgent-caused killings and breakdowns in civil
order.
HI,
Okay, I'm very curious. If there are few (very few) civilians being killed and 
we (ie USA) are rebuilding the infrastructure that we destroyed...

what are these airstrikes hitting?  Who?  Are they all out in the middle of 
nowhere ... no other infrastructure to hit?  That's an awful lot of bombing to 
still be going on and not be touching anyone but insurgents...(though if they 
are unmanned, how can the satellite pictures actually tell if the people killed 
are really insurgents unless they are in the middle of nowhere...and don't have 
women/children around them?

From the study of the IBC information (the study by Medialens is actually being 
done more to study and look at how the media is doing the journalism it 
purports to be doing rather than looking at governments...):

"In December 2005, Associated Press reported that the US Air Force, Navy and 
Marine Corps had ?flown thousands of missions in support of US ground troops in 
Iraq this fall with little attention back home, including attacks by unmanned 
Predator aircraft armed with Hellfire missiles, military records show?. (?Air 
Power Strikes Iraq Targets Daily,? Associated Press, December 20, 2005) 

The aircraft included frontline attack planes. The number of airstrikes 
increased in the weeks leading up to the December 2005 election, from a monthly 
average of 25 in the first half of the year to more than 60 in September and 
120 or more in October and November. The monthly number of air missions grew 
from 1,111 in September to 1,492 in November.
And yet, when we checked, the first 18 pages of the IBC database, covering the 
period between July 2005 and January 2006, contained just six references to 
helicopter attacks and airstrikes killing civilians." 
MB again:
This really bothers me when there is talk of doing the same sort of 'smart' 
striking in Iran. 

I do not see how the 'smart' strikes, etc. can do so with the amount of 
bomb-like material that we are dropping. Seems like if we are really able to 
'surgically' go in and get one building and not another--we'd better be very 
careful.  (not to mention--what happens in our neighborhoods if one building's 
electrical wires are pulled down?  etc.  )  If the infrastructure there is 
going to be destroyed--I simply do not see this as a very positive step towards 
winning the minds and hearts of those who ARE close to gravitating towards a 
more reasonable/secular-but-not-anti-religious/more globally-minded way of 
life/government.  

No--please let's just hold the tension of the opposites for a little bit longer 
until we can find another creative solution here...a couple of little kids in 
Iran are going to become a medical researcher and discover the cure for what 
ails some of us...I'd rather make sure he and she get that chance... and their 
school and home both need to remain intact...

Best,
Marlena in Missouri
remembering, too, the article from Eric on how our brains process information 
which is contrary to what we want to believe...and always keeping it in mind 
these days...

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