Jacob Sullum May 1, 2001 Shoot First http://www.townhall.com/columnists/jacobsullum/js20010501.shtml How many Peruvians does it take to kill a baby? About four, apparently, if they have a fighter jet and the help of a U.S. surveillance plane. If you think that's a sick joke, you're right. But the joke is on us. No matter how hard U.S. officials try to obscure the fact, the Peruvian A-37 that shot down a single-engine plane carrying two missionaries and their children was doing America's bidding. That's not to say that our government wanted to kill Veronica Bowers or her 7-month-old daughter. Indeed, tapes of the incident are said to show that the American surveillance team repeatedly warned the Peruvian Air Force that the plane it was preparing to attack might not be carrying drug smugglers. The Peruvians presumably were not gunning for missionaries either. They simply acted precipitously, based on incomplete and erroneous information, and innocent civilians died as a result. That sort of thing happens in war. Still, there's no denying that this war is directed by the United States, which supports ruthless action against drug traffickers and should not be surprised when its allies get reckless. The killing of Bowers and her daughter was not intended, but something like it was perfectly foreseeable. There was a time when the U.S. government actually opposed firing on civilian aircraft. Federal law, in compliance with international agreements, prohibited attempts to damage or destroy civil aircraft in flight; it also made assisting such attempts a crime... <snip> ************************************************************************** Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues Send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the words subscribe FA on the subject line. List is private and moderated (7-30 messages per week) Matthew Gaylor, 2175 Bayfield Drive, Columbus, OH 43229 (614) 313-5722 ICQ: 106212065 Archived at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fa/ **************************************************************************
