America has become so blase about killing people anywhere in the world anytime it wants to, the accounts of our latest outrage in Somalia are given ho-hum treatment by the media, politicians, and the public.
I doubt if one person in 50 could tell you exactly where Somalia is, but that doesn’t matter, if we want to kill the people there, it’s all right with most of us.
Newspaper reports say that American attack helicopters strafed suspected al-Qaeda fighters in southern Somalia today, following two days of airstrikes.
I love that “suspected” al-Qaeda fighters. Let’s accept for the sake of argument that we have a right to kill Al Qaeda fighters anywhere anytime, just because they’re Al Qaeda. [an outrageous assumption, but what the hell].
But “suspected” al-Qaeda fighters? At home, we assumed that people have to be convicted of a crime before they can be executed. But abroad, we can kill suspects anytime we want.
31 of the 50 odd victims were civilians, including a newlywed couple, a Somali lawmaker said. But they weren’t Americans, so what does it matter.
Posted by Deck at January 9, 2007 04:40 PM