Saturday, January 04, 2020

USA Killings in Iraq

The reports that President Trump authorised the killings of some dreadful Iranian military men when they had travelled to Baghdad's civilian airport are in my view at best extremely sad.  

A drone strike from a base in USA some 7,000 miles away  hit two vehicles carrying Commander Qasem Soleimani and other senior Iranian military officers, killing them all.

The assassinated men were doubtless dreadful but in my humble opinion, a civilised culture would only deliberately kill in war or otherwise in self defence. 

The excuses that Iranian commanders had stirred up the recent violence at the American Embassy in Baghdad  or that an American employee had previously been killed by Iranian led rogues, may well have justified killings in self defence or in defence of the Embassy at the relevant times  but not in my view, the killing of men well after the events, who were not directly involved in those atrocities, however military  the actual combatants at the time appeared to be.

One of President Trump's excuses appears to be that the killings will have saved many American lives in the future. If that is really an excuse, it is in my view unsustainable  as  the dignity of each man must surely allow for personal repentance or a change of heart as in the case of St Paul. 

Turn the other cheek comes to mind.

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