Castro: Zarqawi Raid a Barbarity
Noted humanitarian Fidel Castro has criticized the American raid that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
President Fidel Castro called the U.S. airstrike that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi a “barbarity,” saying he should have been put on trial. The United States acted as “judge and jury” against the leader of the al-Qaida in Iraq, Castro said late Friday. “They bragged, they were practically drunk with happiness.” “The accused cannot just be eliminated,” he told a literacy conference. “This barbarity cannot be done.”
This is rather amusing given Castro’s human rights record. While we obviously want to be better than him, this does not extend so far as to providing trials before killing enemies during wartime. Zarqawi was killed, not in retribution for his many attrocities, but because he was the leader of the most dangerous faction of the “insurgency” we are fighting.
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About James Joyner
Sorry, when I saw that he was at a literary conference, all I could think was Vogon Poetry.
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Just so we’re clear on the Castro playbook:
1. Executing dissidents. Okay.
2. Concentration Camps for homosexuals. No problem.
3. Killing enemies in wartime. Barbarous.
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[...] ht: otb [...]
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[...] Outside The Beltway (James Joyner) Castro: Zarqawi Raid a Barbarity — “This is rather amusing given Castro’s human rights record. While we obviously want to be better than him, this does not extend so far as to providing trials before killing enemies during wartime. Zarqawi was killed, not in retribution for his many attrocities, but because he was the leader of the most dangerous faction of the “insurgency” we are fighting.” [...]
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Just what is a Castro Style Trial?…
Should have been put on trial?? Well, that brings us to a question… Just what is a trial “Castro Style?”…
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Al-Zarqawi Death Prompts Attack Warning…
Al-Qaida in Iraq vowed Sunday to carry out “major attacks,” insisting in a Web statement that it was…
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Are you really that surprised that Castro would denounce a U.S. military act. Why are you giving time and space being outraged and offended by this? Try dealing with a real issue.
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If it’s anti-American Castro can be depended upon to defend it.
Rather like our own press, that way.
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Communists and American hating leftists in lock step with each other. The American hating left is far more dangerous than the Islamofacists are to the security and prosperity of the US.
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Now that’s a war crime.
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Castro got it totally wrong. The interesting moral question revolves around two facts:
- a woman and a child were among the dead,
- troops were close enough to get to the house before Zarqawi died.
Now, should we have tried a foot-on-ground raid to reduce civilian casualties? And, how do we measure “minimum” civilian casualties these days?
I don’t ask this because I think the question is easy, or because the military got it wrong … it’s more troubling to me that collateral damage is yielding less comment as the war drags on.
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odo: I’m all for minimizing collateral damage but apparently they thought an air strike faster and thus more likely to ensure Zarqawi didn’t escape. Certainly, with a target this high on the pecking order, one takes more risks.
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mcgehee; i think it’s only the third worst in the universe!
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That’s because mine is the second worst.
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