TOTAL BULLSHIT: THERE CAN BE A JUST WAR

The NYT Sunday Book Review features "The Violence of Peace, America's Wars in the Age of Obama," by Yale law professor Stephen L. Carter, and reviewed by James Traub, contributing writer for the NYT Magazine and a weekly columnist for ForeignPolicy.com.

Traub writes about Carter's acceptance of a "just war," in the Augustine and Aquinas tradition. War must be a last resort; the force used must be proportional; and "whenever possible," civilians must be spared.

The concept of a just war is pure fiction and total bull. No war is ever just. The fiction arises because kings and presidents want some moral justification for what they will engage in, and their lackeys come up with pseudo-moralistic and quasi-philosophic justifications for their leader's actions.

War never spares civilians, it always targets them. See the American carpet bombing of German cities during WWII, the dropping of American nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the drone attacks currently conducted by the CIA in the Waziristan areas of Pakistan.

War is never proportional. The larger the bomb or shell, the better. The more destructive and lethal the weapon, the sooner it is incorporated into the action.

And war is never the last resort. Consider George W. Bush's action against Iraq. Saddam wanted a compromise. Bush would not permit it.

U.S. FIRES MISSILES INTO PAKISTAN VILLAGE, KILLS AT LEAST 16

We get reports today that the U.S. has fired several missiles into some village in South Waziristan, killing at least 16 people. The question is, how many of these killed were children? How many were women? How many were unsuspecting civilians just going about their daily lives?

The BBC reports:

"At least 16 people have been killed in a missile strike on a building near Pakistan's northern border with Afghanistan, state television has said. The attack took place in the South Waziristan region, where tribal militants are based, Reuters news agency reported residents as saying. The Pakistani state TV report said several missiles destroyed the house of a suspected militant leader. . . ."

The BBC reports that the Pakistan military says at least nine were civilians. It quotes Reuters:

"Reuters reported the military saying seven militants were among the dead.

""Initial reports suggest militants were hiding there and seven of them were killed and several wounded," an unnamed military official told the news agency."

This seems to be the modus operandi of Bush and his U.S. military. Shoot missiles, drop bombs and send in war planes. The heck with how many civilians die.

This raid is illegal on at least two counts.

First, under international law, the United States is not allowed to strike another country or violate another country's sovereignty. Firing a missile into some rural village in Pakistan clearly clearly violates this law.

Second. Under the Geneva Convention, the U.S. is not allowed to directly kill civilians in its attempt to kill militants. Here shooting a missile into someone's home is bound to kill civilians, especially children. This is just as illegal and immoral as the U.S. carpet-bombing Dresden in 1945, killing over 100,000 civilians.

No wonder the people in South Waziristan as well as most other people throughout the world detest the United States and its militaristic foreign policy.