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A List Of Children Killed By Drone Strikes In Pakistan and Yemen

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11–20 of 45 posts

Re: A List Of Children Killed By Drone Strikes In Pakistan and Yemen

#11
post #7
post #3

and is there a list of children murdered by Muslim extremists in the Middle East? in the world?

So just because that happens, we should overlook the fact that there are drones killing innocent children everyday sanctioned by the United States? You seem to be the type of person that says, "What if X is bad? Look at Y, which suits my agenda." Things like this creates more terrorism and more extremism. You may not realize, but it's not a nice thing to see your children and loved ones being killed by planes from th…

You are missing an important point - the reasons drones are up in the sky in the first place is to fight the muslim extremists.

So the number of people they kill is an important variable to countenance the number of accidental drone kills. The two are not unrelated.

Re: A List Of Children Killed By Drone Strikes In Pakistan and Yemen

#12
post #3

and is there a list of children murdered by Muslim extremists in the Middle East? in the world?

Murder for murder is the way that vendettas and feuds continue for decades, centuries, and even millenia. It's how one death turns into ten then a hundred then thousands then millions.

That's not how civilized people should approach violence or warfare, even when violence may be justified.

Look at the aftermath of WWII, for example, many of the most bitter enemies (such as the US and Japan) forged bonds of friendship and alliance and today live in peace with each other, contributing more towards each others' prosperity and happiness than anything else. That's how conflicts are truly ended, the chaos of the battlefield is merely a tool that allows you to get to a point where such things are possible, and if that opportunity is wasted then you have done little other than to perpetuate or create yet another vendetta.

Re: A List Of Children Killed By Drone Strikes In Pakistan and Yemen

#13
post #3

and is there a list of children murdered by Muslim extremists in the Middle East? in the world?

Murder for murder is the way that vendettas and feuds continue for decades, centuries, and even millenia. It's how one death turns into ten then a hundred then thousands then millions. That's not how civilized people should approach violence or warfare, even when violence may be justified. Look at the aftermath of WWII, for example, many of the most bitter enemies (such as the US and Japan) forged bonds of friendship…

The difference is that the US, Japan, and Germany were civilized and had something to lose from continued war. Tribes in the mountains of Pakistan don't.

Re: A List Of Children Killed By Drone Strikes In Pakistan and Yemen

#14
post #8
post #3

and is there a list of children murdered by Muslim extremists in the Middle East? in the world?

That's the wrong comparison to make. AFAIK we're not launching those drone strikes to kill some Middle Eastern children in retaliation for our children that died on Sep. 11. Instead, we're taking actions in the Middle East, which we know will result in the deaths of a few [1] children today, in hopes of disrupting terrorist capabilities to prevent the future deaths of a lot [1] of children in terrorist attacks tomorr…

This makes the optimistic assumption that drone strikes can kill terrorists faster than it can recruit them. You may be right, but imagine for a moment how you would feel if another country were operating deadly flying robots around your children.

Re: A List Of Children Killed By Drone Strikes In Pakistan and Yemen

#15
post #10
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the wrong comparison to make. AFAIK we're not launching those drone strikes to kill some Middle Eastern children in retaliation for our children that died on Sep. 11. Instead, we're taking actions in the Middle East, which we know will result in the deaths of a few [1] children today, in hopes of disrupting terrorist capabilities to prevent the future deaths of a lot [1] of children in terrorist attacks tomorr…

Sorry, but your generic excuse works for any war crime out there. EDIT: Or any other crime against humanity. Nazis did holocaust for the "great good". This same reason was used for many communist crimes as well.

The unsatisfying response to this is that circumstances matter, and long lists of names without context do not give the sort of information that would allow one to act.

Re: A List Of Children Killed By Drone Strikes In Pakistan and Yemen

#16
post #3

and is there a list of children murdered by Muslim extremists in the Middle East? in the world?

America claims to believe in the rule of law, and thus should hold itself to higher standards than extremist terrorist organisations.

It's not a particularly high bar.

Children should have special protection. (http://www.icrc.org/eng/war-and-law/protected-persons/childr...) (http://www.loc.gov/law/help/child-rights/international-law.p...)

The US didn't stop dropping cluster bombs on civilians, but they did change the colour of foodaid - which had been the same yellow colour as bomblets and also delivered by air drop.

(http://www.landmineclearance.org/page2.html)

These munitions can last for many years. (http://www.irinnews.org/Report/78463/LAOS-Deadly-cost-of-une...)

Here's an image of an oldstyle food aid package, and a cluster bomblet. (Also images of wounded children.) (http://www.rawa.org/cluster2.htm)

It's not as if the food drops were always any use. Sometimes the food had spoiled, becoming potentially dangerous to eat. (Dropped from too high, damaging the package.) Or collected and sold for profit. (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0326-02.htm)

Re: A List Of Children Killed By Drone Strikes In Pakistan and Yemen

#17
post #3

and is there a list of children murdered by Muslim extremists in the Middle East? in the world?

You could follow the list of attacks at http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/index.html#Attacks, look up more information for the individual attacks, and filter out the adults. But as far as I'm aware, nobody's doing that right now.

Re: A List Of Children Killed By Drone Strikes In Pakistan and Yemen

#19
post #3

and is there a list of children murdered by Muslim extremists in the Middle East? in the world?

Murder for murder is the way that vendettas and feuds continue for decades, centuries, and even millenia. It's how one death turns into ten then a hundred then thousands then millions. That's not how civilized people should approach violence or warfare, even when violence may be justified. Look at the aftermath of WWII, for example, many of the most bitter enemies (such as the US and Japan) forged bonds of friendship…

So we should let Islamist terrorists continue launching missiles from schools?

Re: A List Of Children Killed By Drone Strikes In Pakistan and Yemen

#20
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the wrong comparison to make. AFAIK we're not launching those drone strikes to kill some Middle Eastern children in retaliation for our children that died on Sep. 11. Instead, we're taking actions in the Middle East, which we know will result in the deaths of a few [1] children today, in hopes of disrupting terrorist capabilities to prevent the future deaths of a lot [1] of children in terrorist attacks tomorr…

> In other words, you should really be comparing to the children who would have died from terrorist actions if we hadn't launched those wars. Is there any evidence whcih provides more than weak and highly-speculative support for the claim that launching the wars has done anything to reduce the number of children (or any other class of victims) killed in terrorist attacks compared to what it would have been without th…

Yes, fewer civilians/children are dying from wars every year.
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