War

Truthdig -- Party to Murder

"The use of terror and hunger to break a hostile population is one of the oldest forms of warfare. I watched the Bosnian Serbs employ the same tactic in Sarajevo. Those who orchestrate such sieges do not grasp the terrible rage born of long humiliation, indiscriminate violence and abuse. A father or a mother whose child dies because of a lack of vaccines or proper medical care does not forget. A boy whose ill grandmother dies while detained at an Israel checkpoint does not forget. A family that loses a child in an airstrike does not forget. All who endure humiliation, abuse and the murder of family members do not forget. This rage becomes a virus within those who, eventually, stumble out into the daylight. Is it any wonder that 71 percent of children interviewed at a school in Gaza recently said they wanted to be a 'martyr'?"

I'm not sure if there ever is such a thing as a "justifiable war", but I am certain that the war in Iraq and this latest disproportionate response to Palestinian rocket fire by Israel doesn't even come close to the definition. Both stink of opportunism and thuggery and have the side effect of recruiting more militants to the opposing side. When will we learn?