Did John Bolton say aloud what many think privately? And doesn’t this mindset lie at the root of most human conflicts, oppression and exploitation?
Lebanon civilian deaths morally not same as terror victims — Bolton
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – US Ambassador John Bolton said there was no moral equivalence between the civilian casualties from the Israeli raids in Lebanon and those killed in Israel from "malicious terrorist acts".
Asked to comment on the deaths in an Israeli air strike of eight Canadian citizens in southern Lebanon Sunday, he said: "it is a matter of great concern to us …that these civilian deaths are occurring. It’s a tragedy."
"I think it would be a mistake to ascribe moral equivalence to civilians who die as the direct result of malicious terrorist acts," he added, while defending as "self-defense" Israel’s military action, which has had "the tragic and unfortunate consequence of civilian deaths".
The eight dead Canadians were a Lebanese-Canadian couple, their four children, his mother and an uncle, said relatives in Montreal.
The Montreal pharmacist and his family had arrived in Lebanon 10 days earlier for a vacation in his parents’ home village and to introduce his children to relatives, they said. Three of his Lebanese relatives died too, a family member told AFP.
"It’s simply not the same thing to say that it’s the same act to deliberately target innocent civilians, to desire their deaths, to fire rockets and use explosive devices or kidnapping versus the sad and highly unfortunate consequences of self-defense," Bolton noted.
The overall civilian death toll from the Israeli onslaught in Lebanon since last Wednesday reached 195, in addition to 12 soldiers, officials said. Twenty-four Israelis have also been killed since fighting began last Wednesday, including 12 civilians in a barrage of Hezbollah rocket fire across the border."
Note: Since this report, the death toll has risen on both sides of the border.
Accidental Blogger 
2 responses to “Assigning Value to Life and Death”
I really don’t see how the two are not morally equivalent. Both are innocent civilians caught up in a war they most likely do not support. One group deliberately targets civilians, the other calls them collateral, which is also deliberate.
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I don’t either. And this is precisely why the US will fail as an honest broker in most worldwide conflicts, especially in the middle east.
Indiscriminate carnage unleashed on civilians, collective punishment and preemptive war – these are all actions that are taken on the basis of such moral (immoral) relativism.
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