By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
I should have a right to destroy that which threatens me with destruction: for, by the fundamental law of nature, man being to be preserved as much as possible, when all cannot be preserved, the safety of the innocent is to be preferred: and one may destroy a man who makes war upon him, or has discovered an enmity to his being, for the same reason that he may kill a wolf or a lion; because such men are not under the ties of the commonlaw of reason, have no other rule, but that of force and violence, and so may be treated as beasts of prey, those dangerous and noxious creatures, that will be sure to destroy him whenever he falls into their power.
~John Locke, Second Treatise on Government, Ch. III, (kudos to Bron)
On the night of February 13th, 773 RAF Avro Lancaster bombers swept in low and fast on the Saxony railway town of Dresden. It was early 1945, The Third Reich was collapsing and some 600,000 people had taken refuge in the city to avoid the Allied onslaught. The presumed target was the military complex on the outskirts of town known as the Albertstadt. Dresden, itself, was riddled with military garrisons intermingled among the civilian population. In two waves, the RAF dropped 650,000 incendiaries and 8,000 lbs of high explosives and hundreds of 4,000 pounds bombs on the city center, all with little to no resistance. The entire city was ablaze. RAF crews reported smoke rising to a height of 15,000 ft. Fires were seen 500 miles away from the target.
The next day, February 14, 1945, as Dresden was trying to cope with the crisis, 450 U.S. B-17 Flying Fortress long-range bombers assigned to the 1st Bombardment Division of the United States VIII Bomber Command arrived at 1230 local time. Guided by the fires, they discharged 771 tons of bombs.
The results on the ground were horrific with an estimated 25,000 killed. Survivor Lothar Metzger recalled:
We saw terrible things: cremated adults shrunk to the size of small children, pieces of arms and legs, dead people, whole families burnt to death, burning people ran to and fro, burnt coaches filled with civilian refugees, dead rescuers and soldiers, many were calling and looking for their children and families, and fire everywhere, everywhere fire, and all the time the hot wind of the firestorm threw people back into the burning houses they were trying to escape from.
I cannot forget these terrible details. I can never forget them.
Some estimates bring the number of those killed to 100,000. Nazi propagandists took the figure to 200,000. RAF recon noted that ” 23 percent of the industrial buildings, and 56 percent of the non-industrial buildings, not counting residential buildings, had been seriously damaged. Around 78,000 dwellings had been completely destroyed; 27,700 were uninhabitable, and 64,500 damaged, but readily repairable.”
The raid, ordered by Churchill, rendered such a blow to Western psyche that he distanced himself from the raid saying, “It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of the so-called ‘area-bombing’ of German cities should be reviewed from the point of view of our own interests. If we come into control of an entirely ruined land, there will be a great shortage of accommodation for ourselves and our allies… We must see to it that our attacks do no more harm to ourselves in the long run than they do to the enemy’s war effort.” Of mention, is no sense of the human cost to the enemy of the raid. Th emphasis seems to be purely egocentric: What kind of country will we have when this is all over?
However British Air Chief Marshal Arthur Harris was not so circumspect:
“Attacks on cities like any other act of war are intolerable unless they are strategically justified. But they are strategically justified in so far as they tend to shorten the war and preserve the lives of Allied soldiers. To my mind we have absolutely no right to give them up unless it is certain that they will not have this effect. I do not personally regard the whole of the remaining cities of Germany as worth the bones of one British Grenadier. The feeling, such as there is, over Dresden, could be easily explained by any psychiatrist. It is connected with German bands and Dresden shepherdesses. Actually Dresden was a mass of munitions works, an intact government centre, and a key transportation point to the East. It is now none of these things.”
“War is hell” seems to claim the Air Marshall, and strategic concerns take precedence over humanitarian ones in a war zone. Is he right, or are both he and Churchill “war criminals” to quote some of the more animated commentary on the blog? Neither were prosecuted or charged with war crimes for the Dresden raid.
Which brings us to David Drumm’s fine posting yesterday about a claim of double-tapping Drone strikes in Pakistan and elsewhere in support of the war against the terrorists. The evidence published by the 18-month-old Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) claims that 6 instances of double-tapping have occurred with rescuers being targeted with second strikes. A review of 5 of those sources (ABC’s article was not easily retrievable) reveals that one arguably involved an attack on civilians, one was unclear on the status of the rescuers, and three reported second attacks on militants and extremists.
In response to my query on this point, David correctly pointed out that the Obama Administration does consider fighting age men in the strike zone “militants.” That fact was disclosed in a long New York Times article:
It is also because Mr. Obama embraced a disputed method for counting civilian casualties that did little to box him in. It in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.
Counterterrorism officials insist this approach is one of simple logic: people in an area of known terrorist activity, or found with a top Qaeda operative, are probably up to no good. “Al Qaeda is an insular, paranoid organization — innocent neighbors don’t hitchhike rides in the back of trucks headed for the border with guns and bombs,” said one official, who requested anonymity to speak about what is still a classified program.
But does six instances of secondary attacks obscured by the fog of war prove that the US has a policy of targeting innocent rescuers? Can it even be said that we are indifferent to the humanitarian concerns of rescuers even as we attack our enemies on their home turf?
From a legal perspective, targeting killing of persons who present an imminent threat to a country is permissible. Obama himself has insisted on such evidence before authorizing the strikes though there are trade-offs, according to the New York Times. The CIA’s man in the White House, John Brennan, a crusty Irishman who has spoken in defense of civil liberties and to close Guantanamo but who has faced withering criticism for his role in post 9/11 interrogations, explains Obama’s analysis:
The purpose of these actions is to mitigate threats to U.S. persons’ lives. It is the option of last recourse. So the president, and I think all of us here, don’t like the fact that people have to die. And so he wants to make sure that we go through a rigorous checklist: The infeasibility of capture, the certainty of the intelligence base, the imminence of the threat, all of these things.
Assassination of persons is generally regarded as murder although, by executive order, the US President may order the killing of foreign leaders who represent an imminent threat to the US.
Former U.S. District Judge (S.D. NY) Abraham Sofaer explains the difference:
When people call a targeted killing an “assassination,” they are attempting to preclude debate on the merits of the action. Assassination is widely defined as murder, and is for that reason prohibited in the United States…. U.S. officials may not kill people merely because their policies are seen as detrimental to our interests…. But killings in self-defense are no more “assassinations” in international affairs than they are murders when undertaken by our police forces against domestic killers. Targeted killings in self-defense have been authoritatively determined by the federal government to fall outside the assassination prohibition.
Likewise, Harold Hongju Koh, Legal Adviser US Department of State, defends the use of drones as ” part of “responsibility of US to its citizens, to use force, including lethal force, to defend itself, including by targeting persons such as high-level al-Qaeda leaders who are planning attacks.”
But what then about rescuers killed trying to aid militants?
Georgetown Law Professor Gary Solis, author The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War, and no friend of the US drone policy concedes that “Legal guilt does not always accompany innocent death.” In an example, published by Harper’s Magazine, Solis comments on a US helicopter attack on civilians rendering aid to combatants. “Can a van picking up wounded victims be fired upon? If the helicopter personnel reasonably associated the unmarked van with the presumed enemy personnel, yes. An “enemy” vehicle without red cross, red crescent, or white flag receives no special protection, even if wounded personnel are on board.”
Thus, even critics of the drone program conclude that trying to render humanitarian aid to injured militants affords no protection unless they are clearly visible as such. There is nothing in any of the articles cited by the BIJ indicating that rescuers were so denominated.
What then to make of the double-tap policy and the humanitarian toll. I see no proof that US drone masters are “targeting civilians.” Targeting implies intention and given the Administration’s definition of militants in a strike area it is unlikely that there is the intention to harm civilians rescuers where proof of such status exists. The Administration argues that its definition is based on its decade long experience with al-Qaeda. One certainly can argue with the definition of “militant” given its breadth, but does this definition make us any more culpable that acknowledged WWII heroes Winston Churchill or Air Chief Marshall Harris in arguing that our prime responsibility in war is to deny the enemy the ability to wage war against us even as civilians are maimed or killed?
What do you think?
Sources: linked throughout
~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
id707,
Yes sir, I did. We are of like mind in many areas.
I’m sorry not to have acknowledged that earlier but DonS took me off on a birdwatching trip and I enjoyed a moment of beauty in the midst of all this ugly war talk.
Now I must go grocery shopping.
“They wanted to enslave our sailors for the glory of Allah. We declared war on them too but I don’t recall any carping that sinking their vessels led to senseless loss of rat life.”
Wow. That is such a stunning and callous false equivalence that it speaks for itself. Rats? Really?
Has someone been putting mercury in your scotch, old bean?
There is a difference between living and working toward an ideal that in the end becomes untenable because of an intractable opponent and just saying to Hell with the angels of our better nature. A victory that causes a complete collapse in principles in such a way as you either become your enemy or you become what your enemy has said you are is the very example of Pyhrric. If you are not fighting ultimately for your way of life and values, then you are not a civilization and you have no respect for the rule of law. The only rule you respect is the law of the jungle. And if that’s the case, then the prayer at the end of this scene applies to the endeavor that is human civilization.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boO4RowROiw
We have the potential to be so much better as a species than we are.
Giving in to the inclination to use force simply because we can is not the way to realize that potential.
It’s the way to realize a global graveyard.
Continuing off topic for a moment … time to post my new avatar … I hope you can see the cardinal … taken in the back yard last winter
michael Murry,
I think they would refuse to deliver fried rice and fried noodles. Indigestible.
Blouise,
I hope you read my earlier comment.
Elaine:
You have every right to hold out for the better angels of our nature. In most international affairs with like-minded Western countries who share our values that can work. The question becomes what do we do when our opponent demonstrates his utter repugnance at our rights,our way of life, and our life itself? Do we owe morality to the beast of prey as Locke might say?
Bob,Esq:
I give you dodge #2 – not dealing with Kant on his own terms. Kant says we can only have peace in the presence of law (i.e. rationality) else-wise we may regard the one rejecting rationality as an enemy. Kant argues for an overarching international structure to enforce the peace. How’s that square with your sovereignty arguments. Seems Kant agrees with Hobbes, Cicero — and, God forbid it — me on the nature of man and the “morality” one must show an irrational enemy. I’m going to have to reevaluate Kant. I’ve been listening to your analysis instead of folks who truly know what they are talking about.
Some of my accidental photos, where a bird dives to change altitude just after the shutter click . . . can’t help bring to mind these damn missiles.
what a contrast.
AY:
The Barbary Corsairs were the first terrorists we faced. They wanted to enslave our sailors for the glory of Allah. We declared war on them too but I don’t recall any carping that sinking their vessels led to senseless loss of rat life.
DonS, Lucky you.
OT OT OT – @ Blousie:
we are having a field day, literally, with the resident warblers here in Nova Scotia
“But the infusion of one with the other can be a powerful, toxic, and deceptive cocktail.” (DonS)
Which is why we birdwatchers stay out of bikerbars.
Elaine,
🙂
Mespo,
Don’t forget the first one of the first wars that the US actively engaged in off of US soil…..Barbary….
But consider this. The govt. is the prime mixer of “ethics” into the political realm. We aren’t allowed to see the legal justification for droning everyone in sight but we are endlessly told of the morality, even priestly qualities of our “leaders” in their conduct of war. That’s extremely interesting. If morality has no place in the actions of the state why is the state always the first to claim they do?
We are regime changing in some places because of bad leaders who are doing wrong. Anyway, that’s what we’re told. Of course we fail to regime change other “leaders” who we like, ones engage in the same types of actions as those which demand regime change…But really should I question what the govt. tells me? Doesn’t that make me a traitor?
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2012/06/20126816273761143.html
Summary: The Listening Post program on Al Jazeera takes an in-depth look at the Obama administration crackdown on intelligence whistleblowers. The first half of the show looks at the six Espionage Act prosecutions of intelligence whistleblowers under Obama –especially the one brought against NSA whistleblower and GAP client Thomas Drake – and the effect it has on American journalism. GAP Executive Director Bea Edwards was also among the interviewed. The second half of the program is showcased by an extensive interview with GAP National Security & Human Rights Director Jesselyn Radack – also a DOJ whistleblower in the case of “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh.
Key Quote: I think the media really should dig into what is driving Obama’s war on whistleblowers. Is it that he wants to curry favor with the national security and intelligence establishment, which found him to be weak going into office? I think journalists really need to be asking the government the hard questions of whether the intelligence agencies are driving this or whether people at the Justice Department are driving this? And why this president – who was elected on a platform of openness and transparency – is engaged in one of the worst crackdowns of public information that we’ve seen since the McCarthy era.
Thanks for saying all that, Blousie.
Certainly what passes for justification in the political realm is mostly a pretty low standard of thoughtfulness, and little incisive scrutiny of the ethics and morals involved. But that’s politics. Mixing politics and deeper reasoning in the same discussion may well nigh be impossible. But the infusion of one with the other can be a powerful, toxic, and deceptive cocktail.
Blouise,
I’m with you.
Sometimes it’s good to be in the minority. I can still clearly recall the presidential election of 1972. I stood outside the polling place with my McGovern sign for hours. I’m proud to say that Massachusetts was the only state not to go for “Tricky Dick.”
Two popular bumper stickers around these parts in the seventies read:
1) Nixon 49–America 1
2) Don’t Blame Me, I’m from Massachusetts
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2209&dat=19740809&id=ZqErAAAAIBAJ&sjid=fPwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6908,1493023
From Glen Greenwald’s column today: “…Last night, 60 Minutes aired a profile by Scott Pelley of Obama’s Defense Secretary and former CIA chief Leon Panetta that is reverent as anything you’ll see, as pure as propaganda gets (the video of the full segment is below). Panetta is a top
government official presiding over some of the most violent, legally dubious, controversial military and intelligence policies in the world, but there wasn’t a single word uttered about any of that. It was, instead, 13 uninterrupted minutes of drooling propaganda: Leon Panetta, the tough-minded, patriotic renaissance man who kills Evil Men to protect us all, and does it all with a heart of gold.”
First, clearly, if you are truly willing to look at this govt. squarely, you will see it is a military dictatorship. We are not kept safe by a govt. that no longer has any breaks on its actions, either foreign or domestic. On one lie alone, 6000+ of our men and women have been killed in a war this nation was utterly lied into. That is just one lie, about one nation. Every civilian killed in Iraq was/is being illegally murdered. (If you don’t think we have troops still there, you’ve been lied to again. Go do your research, we do have troops there.)
The rule of law is the necessary condition for a functioning society. We look more like Russia every day.
mespo,
“That implies an equivalency between our morality and theirs of jihad against the infidel and his wife and his children”
Only if we exchange our morality for that of the jihadist.
I have read your detour signs but the road I’m traveling is not closed down. The detour you are pointing towards leads to My Lai, Kent State, torture rooms, and before my time, the Native Indian village that must be destroyed because the savages (men, women, and children) were keeping us from the Black Hills gold God has placed there for our use. (yes, the implication of “black gold” is there between the lines)
Morality is all about the setting of boundaries. New technology is always outside those boundaries until we figure out a way to incorporate it into our structure. Here at home we see the problem clearly when it comes to tasers in the hands of police. Over there it’s drones and god knows what else.
You have chosen to advocate for the easy way around the dilemma of the nation’s morality in war, i.e., no boundaries. I disagree.
However, I would be willing to wager that your view is far more popular with the general public’s than mine which is why I couldn’t get elected to, let alone serve as dog-catcher. It’s also why Obama permitted the leaks. And yes, I do see what that says about the nation’s collective morality that I foolishly claim is something that it isn’t and has never really been. Just call me a stubborn Quaker and have done with it. I will keep arguing for the boundaries of morality in war even as we drop the second atom bomb on Japan because we had it and we needed to see the difference between the two types in action and the double-tap drones and torture and ….
Mine is an appeal to our better nature. Perhaps an exercise in futility?