The Fool wrote:
>
> > BTW, US-critical as we are over here, one thing that made the Dutch
> news
> > was a report that 25 Afghani civilians were killed when a residential
> area
> > was hit...
>
> Taliban propaganda.  They also claim they shot down 6 airplanes.  But
> where's the proof?  The taliban ambasador shut up when asked what proof
> he had...

Where's the proof that the US strikes didn't hit civilian targets?

-j-

Me:
It is, of course, impossible to provide.  One of the basic rules of logic is
that it is impossible to prove a negative.  It is literally impossible to
prove that no US weapons hit _any_ civilian targets.  It is, however,
trivial to prove that one did, _if one did_.  The fact that the Taliban
could not provide any proof means that it didn't exist.

Beyond that, however, people need to grow up.  We _are_ going to hit
civilian targets.  We're going to do everything we possibly can to avoid
this, but we _are_ going to hit civilian targets.  It _is_ going to happen.
Anyone who says that the moral criterion is "no civilian casualties" is
living in a fantasy world.  It is absolutely impossible to reach that
threshold of reliability.  The most you can ask - all that the Geneva
conventions ask - is that soldiers make all reasonable efforts to avoid
hitting civilian targets.  This we are, clearly, doing.

Gautam

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