1 Person = 1 Person?

First of all I’ve got an exercise for you. Have a read of this article from BBC News. At least get the first couple of paragraphs.

Now, just to make sure that I read what you read, Hezbollah (a militia group in Lebanon, not the guys in overall power, but they do have a certain amount of power) have kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, and through launching some rocket attacks, have killed two more people, and injured more people. The soldiers who have been kidnapped are assumed to be OK at this stage – not dead or anything.

Now 50, that’s right, 50 Lebanese civilians (mostly civilians anyway) have been killed in the Israeli response. Now at least Hezbollah are attacking military targets – kidnapping soldiers. But Israel’s response is to kill civilians. This is the same government who is so adamant that they have the moral high-ground in that they will not negotiate with terrorist organisations, and are the most vocal supporters going around in the “War on Terror”.

These actions are terrorist actions. Killing civilians to make a point is about as terrorist as you get. It hurts to see a country that seems to have so many of our Western sensibilities being labeled like that, but there is no doubt in my mind that these are inappropriate actions. And it’s time that the US, the UK, Australia, the countries who are so determined to wipe out terrorism, would actually recognise that the Islamic organisations aren’t the only people acting inappropriately. Show some guts, some anger. These are people who are going about their daily lives, in the same way as the people in the World Trade Center were, or the people on the London Underground. The lives of Lebanese are worth the same as the lives of Palestinians are worth the same as Americans are worth the same as Nigerians are worth the same as Australians. But if the world actually functioned like that – it would look completely unrecognizable from the world we have today.