Reparations for the Innocent Victims?
Callous disregard for the innocent victims of modern warfare seems to be increasing -- or is it that vivid TV images force us to face up to what in previous wars were merely written reports of the effects of Dresden, Nagasaki, My Lai?
I first became really conscious of deliberate violations of the rule of law by democratic governments at one of our Columbia University Faculty Seminars back about the time Israel bombed the Iraqi nuclear plant under development:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/7/newsid_3014000/3014623.stm
Many of our seminar members were distressed by this preemptive strike -- as a violation of international law. I defended it as an exception which justified preemption for self-defense -- perhaps had I known what we would do to Iraq under the same rubric, I might have had second thoughts. However, to the point here, Israel had struck the plant late at night during a weekend so that no lives were lost.
What, however, did distress me about that time was a visiting Israeli scholar's defense of Israel's then newly instituted practice of 'preventive' detention of suspected terrorists (previously introduced by Apartheid South Africa) -- without the right to charges, legal defense, or contact with others. He maintained that only a handful of such detentions would be instituted and those ended off generally after a six month maximum authorization. I asked a direct question -- should not such individuals or at least their families be compensated for this violation of their due process rights? He was outraged and responded that terrorists deserved no compensation.
That moment has stuck in my mind as I have watched Israel extend not only the practice of preventive detention to hundreds if not thousands, but also its further violations of fundamental human rights in the name of its national security -- assassinations, bombings of captive populations from on high -- Gaza and Lebanon most recently.
Needless to say Israel is not the only violator in this regard and has endured innumerable provocations ranging from the suicide bombings of innocents to the present madness of the Hezbollah rocketing of northern Israel. Always there lurks for Israel, as for us, the threat of an ultimate attack by a WMD -- say, an atomic weapon smuggled in via one of those billions of shipping crates constantly circling the globe.
However, granting the anxieties and provocations that terrorism induce in all of us -- my beloved wife was heading for an appointment down there 9/11, but fortunately never gets anywhere early -- still there remain the innocent victims and their families who have been cruelly harmed by our wars. I join Kofi Annan in his disgust with the UN (read the U.S.'s and Israel's) failure to move rapidly towards a cessation of hostilities which are, I assume, as I write these words, still killing off good people on both sides.
It occurs to me that the leaders who carry out such mindless, brutal, and inhumane practices -- all too often to enhance their own prestige -- should be held accountable for their actions. One way that we have discovered to achieve this aim is through "truth and reconciliation" testimony after egregious violations of human rights. I hope such will be instituted down the line at the very least to expose the Bush administration's and neocons' (particularly Rumsfeld's) criminal war on Iraq and its people. Nasralleh looks to be a candidate for such condemnation -- and Olmert and Peretz as pitiful incompetents in the face of their national crisis.
Having condemned these incompetents/criminals why not further hold their nations and/or supporters accountable financially for the lives that they have destroyed.? Their victims deserve compensation. There is a certain irony here in that such compensation would be the opposite of that for which some condemned Saddam Hussein to be a terrorist -- his rewards to the families of suicide bombers in Israel.
I for one believe that the U.S. owes Iraq compensation for the killing and destruction that we have done there -- Afghanis and Afghanistan as well -- destruction in the latter dating back to the Bush I era at least. And Israel owes much to the Lebanese whom it has so cruelly attacked. A positive here is that voluntary assistance by us and by Israel would be a mark of our acknowledgment that we have harmed innocent people while pursuing our own national interests. And this charge for compensation might well be directed to Syria and Iran as well for their provision of weapons to their indiscriminate proxy killer -- Nasrallah.
If nations and their leaders were forced to pay reparations for the damages that their wars have done, they might think twice before launching them?
Lest someone cite the excessive reparations imposed on Germany following WW1 which facilitated the rise of Hitler, remember our Marshall Plan for Germany and assistance in rebuilding the Japan that we had destroyed, which healed wounds that had been inflicted by WW2 that might otherwise have generated lasting hatred. The smartest move that Israel could make now would be to offer assistance in cleaning up the mess that it has made of Lebanon to help heal the wounds that it has inflicted there. Will Olmert and Peretz be so wise. Probably not. Bibi lurks with another message.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
I first became really conscious of deliberate violations of the rule of law by democratic governments at one of our Columbia University Faculty Seminars back about the time Israel bombed the Iraqi nuclear plant under development:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/7/newsid_3014000/3014623.stm
Many of our seminar members were distressed by this preemptive strike -- as a violation of international law. I defended it as an exception which justified preemption for self-defense -- perhaps had I known what we would do to Iraq under the same rubric, I might have had second thoughts. However, to the point here, Israel had struck the plant late at night during a weekend so that no lives were lost.
What, however, did distress me about that time was a visiting Israeli scholar's defense of Israel's then newly instituted practice of 'preventive' detention of suspected terrorists (previously introduced by Apartheid South Africa) -- without the right to charges, legal defense, or contact with others. He maintained that only a handful of such detentions would be instituted and those ended off generally after a six month maximum authorization. I asked a direct question -- should not such individuals or at least their families be compensated for this violation of their due process rights? He was outraged and responded that terrorists deserved no compensation.
That moment has stuck in my mind as I have watched Israel extend not only the practice of preventive detention to hundreds if not thousands, but also its further violations of fundamental human rights in the name of its national security -- assassinations, bombings of captive populations from on high -- Gaza and Lebanon most recently.
Needless to say Israel is not the only violator in this regard and has endured innumerable provocations ranging from the suicide bombings of innocents to the present madness of the Hezbollah rocketing of northern Israel. Always there lurks for Israel, as for us, the threat of an ultimate attack by a WMD -- say, an atomic weapon smuggled in via one of those billions of shipping crates constantly circling the globe.
However, granting the anxieties and provocations that terrorism induce in all of us -- my beloved wife was heading for an appointment down there 9/11, but fortunately never gets anywhere early -- still there remain the innocent victims and their families who have been cruelly harmed by our wars. I join Kofi Annan in his disgust with the UN (read the U.S.'s and Israel's) failure to move rapidly towards a cessation of hostilities which are, I assume, as I write these words, still killing off good people on both sides.
It occurs to me that the leaders who carry out such mindless, brutal, and inhumane practices -- all too often to enhance their own prestige -- should be held accountable for their actions. One way that we have discovered to achieve this aim is through "truth and reconciliation" testimony after egregious violations of human rights. I hope such will be instituted down the line at the very least to expose the Bush administration's and neocons' (particularly Rumsfeld's) criminal war on Iraq and its people. Nasralleh looks to be a candidate for such condemnation -- and Olmert and Peretz as pitiful incompetents in the face of their national crisis.
Having condemned these incompetents/criminals why not further hold their nations and/or supporters accountable financially for the lives that they have destroyed.? Their victims deserve compensation. There is a certain irony here in that such compensation would be the opposite of that for which some condemned Saddam Hussein to be a terrorist -- his rewards to the families of suicide bombers in Israel.
I for one believe that the U.S. owes Iraq compensation for the killing and destruction that we have done there -- Afghanis and Afghanistan as well -- destruction in the latter dating back to the Bush I era at least. And Israel owes much to the Lebanese whom it has so cruelly attacked. A positive here is that voluntary assistance by us and by Israel would be a mark of our acknowledgment that we have harmed innocent people while pursuing our own national interests. And this charge for compensation might well be directed to Syria and Iran as well for their provision of weapons to their indiscriminate proxy killer -- Nasrallah.
If nations and their leaders were forced to pay reparations for the damages that their wars have done, they might think twice before launching them?
Lest someone cite the excessive reparations imposed on Germany following WW1 which facilitated the rise of Hitler, remember our Marshall Plan for Germany and assistance in rebuilding the Japan that we had destroyed, which healed wounds that had been inflicted by WW2 that might otherwise have generated lasting hatred. The smartest move that Israel could make now would be to offer assistance in cleaning up the mess that it has made of Lebanon to help heal the wounds that it has inflicted there. Will Olmert and Peretz be so wise. Probably not. Bibi lurks with another message.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
posted by Ed Kent at 9:40 AM
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