Who is guilty for the killing of 16 Afghan civilians in their homes? Public opinion says it’s the one person who indeed fired the shots. But who is really guilty of wartime atrocities and civilian deaths?
Is it the politicians who decide on these wars and send young people to do the actual killing? Is it the military who carefully brainwash them into thinking it’s OK to kill provided you limit it to “them”? Is it the Commanders who insist on forcing soldiers into no-win situations in which their emotions are heated to the point of explosion?
And what of those brave warriors in the US who never have to face the consequences of the bombs their drones deliver- often to innocent civilians? Are they also killers, or is it OK to kill if you’re safely thousands of miles from the conflict and are just pushing buttons?
One man killed 16 people, tragically . Is he guilty? Yes, of this particular tragedy. But who is guilty of the thousands of other Afghan, Iraqi civilian deaths?
The business of war is to kill. In peacetime this is called murder. And since we’re rightly shocked at murder, is it time for us to see war for what it is: murder on a large scale.
Letter I submitted to the Ottawa Citizen on March 15, 2012 that was not published.