Civilian Casualties: Part VI

The astute Victor Davis Hansen cites seven critical lessons learned thus far as we wage the Global War on Terror (GWOT, aka WW III). The seventh sounds a rather familiar refrain for us and for HazZzMat readers:

...the reputation of the international media in the Middle East for both accuracy and fairness has been lost. In the recent war in Lebanon, news agencies were accused by bloggers of publishing staged photos, and one agency, Reuters, was embarrassed when it found out - thanks again to the work of bloggers - that one of its freelancers had doctored war-zone photos.

Journalists rarely interviewed or filmed Hezbollah soldiers; we still
have no idea how many so-called "civilians" reported killed were, in fact, Hezbollah terrorists. In the Middle East, reporters are scared stiff of Islamic fundamentalists, but not the Israeli or American military.

(Italics are Wonker's.)

We certainly agree, and that's precisely the point. The MSM, always anti-Bush, anti-Israel, and more than likely anti-American (but, of course, "patriots"), are either too frightened or too lazy to search for the truth in Middle Eastern war zones. Rather, they're content to parrot the enemy's allegations of "civilian casualties" as an established fact. But, as we've learned in Afghanistan, and, occasionally, in Pakistan's lawless tribal zones, terrorists are "civilians" too, since they aren't soldiers of any country. Thus, 100 "civilian"deaths trumpted by Hezbollah's Stalinist-quality propaganda machine could range anywhere from 100 women and children to 100 jihadis, or any combination in-between.

This distinction led to the MSM being easily suckered on the Qana "scandal" where they first trumpeted Hezbollah's and the Lebanese governments wild claims for an enormous number of "civilian casualties." The number was later radically reduced, and even then, of that number, no one is really sure of the number of Hezbollah "civilian casualties" involved in that raid. For, conveniently enough, by the time the question arose, the site had been more or less sanitized.

Although the left, over the last century, has done its best to destroy the meaning of critical descriptive vocabulary by robbing it of meaning, we can't let them get away with it. Words have meaning, precise meaning, and we need to work to retain meaning rather than allow it to be obliterated by a bizarre kind of moral equivalency.

A civilian is a civilian--a noncombatant who is not involved even in a support role unless coerced. A combatant of any kind in the Middle East, particularly if he doesn't wear a uniform, is NOT a civilian. And should not be allowed to be counted or treated as such.