Letter to the Editor: Killing Civilians More Efficiently

During one of his political sideshows, Donald Trump was asked how he would handle our perceived enemies in the Middle East. His reply, “I would bomb the s— out of them.” His diplomatic speak naturally brought screams of approval from the Republican lemmings surrounding him.

America’s wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya have caused hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties and displaced millions of people, along with destroying trillions of dollars in infrastructure in countries that do not meet our brand of imperialism.

The Pentagon announced it has delegated more authority to General MacFarland, commander of the wars in Syria and Iraq, to approve targets even when there is a risk that civilians will be killed. Previously authority for missions with the potential to kill civilians had to be made at headquarters of the U.S. Central Command. Passing this authority down to the lower echelons of command produced instant results – we are now killing the same amount of civilians in three months that used to take 12 months.

The Pentagon is not revealing what the new killing ratio is, but is the taking out of one ISIS fighter worth the lives of a family of four? Is killing one ISIS commander worth the lives of 13 kids in a nearby school? Whatever, as Uncle Sam’s military plays some kind of divine decider as to who lives and who dies.

Least we forget, several thousand casualties of Gaza and Lebanon were killed by munitions that were gifted to Israel. Your tax dollars at work.

As to the GOP’s presumptive presidential candidate’s vulgar comment, in the past 18 months our military has dropped 40,000 bombs – with more on the way – in Syria and northern Iraq, killing 680 civilians. Assuredly, this qualifies as bombing the s— out of them.

Ed Hodges

Appleton, Wis.