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>The Sons are Dead, But Resistance Will Grow Well enough as the story is written, but important principles are being waylaid in the coverage of this. Shall we applaud the lynch mob who kills a criminal monster? It was reported (on NPR) that the US forces banged on the door and demanded surrender, and then 200 troops blew away the occupants during the ensuing firefight. It may be asked however, if that was necessary? Two hundred troops caoul easily "starve out" the suspects -- and yes, at THAT time they WERE only suspects. There is the question of the 14 year old boy also -- or other possible innocents within the villa. Use of tear gas or such is also far from unknown as a solution to such standoffs. Considering just the informational and political values of capturing the sons alive, certainly such efforts should have been made. Most troubling is the assumption of the US that they have the right to kill whom they choose, and disregard not only the problems that entails for handling of suspects, but of the killing of innocnet bystanders as well. It's bad enough that US authority is debatable, despite the UN designation as occupiers, but the methods and policies DO count. Surely attacking Iraqis at will is no better than the Israeli's "targetted assasinations" which also kill many bystanders. That some US forces actually trained under the Israelis in Jenin does not speak well for the intentions or standards, and the parallels must surely be drawn by Iraqis and other Arabs. Plainly put, this is no longer a "war" -- if it ever was -- and the US policy of simply designating people as enemies or "bad guys" is no justification whatever for extre-legal incarceration or execution. It seems the US are also "bad guys" -- a new incarnation of Regan's "evil empire". This won't do at all. ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk