Targeting The Red Cross
Today's attack on the Red Cross in Iraq marks a new low in warfare. Not even the most ardent defenders of Saddam Hussein can justify such actions, under any circumstances. It's clear that any such force, or conflagration of forces, which would attack and murder individuals seeking only to help the injured and suffering needs to be destroyed.
If these attackers believe that such an attack, along with those against U.S. allied forces, will cause a retreat, they are sadly mistaken. If anything, it points to an absolute necessity to stay the course, and root out every one of these evil individuals and disarm, imprison, or kill them.
No sympathy will come to the resistance of Iraq through such actions. Very little was forthcoming in non-Islamic lands to begin with, and now, with the latest outrage, much pressure will now rightfully come down on Islamic lands to turn their backs on these mercenaries as well.
Any party who does not speak out against such an attack on the Red Cross leaves itself in the crosshairs. Even as the Bush Administration has badly blown capitalizing on international sentiment in the wake of 9/11, by forcing this war in Iraq, so the various resisters and terrorists fighting in Iraq may ironically do the same, for their own cause, by bringing a reluctant and bickering world to common cause and realization of threats and enemies.
The world should not stand aside while the Red Cross is being targeted. No moral actor would do such a thing. If any act deserves global solidarity and combined aggression, this is the one. Despite any initial misgivings about Iraq, or hesitancy in getting involved after stating clear opposition to the bumbling Bush Administration, the pressure of the conflict has brought certain things to bear. Actions speak for themselves. All we need is to witness them, and we will learn much about the participants.
After the Red Cross bombing, it is not hard to see that this war is necessary, no matter how poorly initiated, or justified, in that those who actively resist it, with savagery, are clearly dictatorial and brutal thugs, and be they Saddam Hussein's supporters, Al Qaeda, or any other organization, failure to denounce this action signals complicity, or sympathy, and deserves a rightful and definitive response - defeat and annihilation.
(who would trust such an actor? in a world of devastating technological power?)
