New York Congressman Gary Ackerman, speaking February 7 at a congressional breakfast hosted by two Jewish groups:
"I would contend that on any given month during the war in Iraq and the war in Afgahnistan and Pakistan, in one month probably more innocent civilians are killed by American troops – unintended consequences – than in the whole Gaza incursion….
(Note that human rights organizations say that about 430 women and children were killed in the Gaza onslaught and about half of the total 1400 dead were noncombatants.)
Ackerman:
"And if the international community thinks that they can condemn Israel and accuse it of war crimes, based on the Goldstone Report, which is intended to delegitimize the very existence of the state of Israel, than it’s not just Israeli soldiers and Israeli officials, but the very president of the United States or any American soldier, if they decide to apply those same standards to us or anybody else, that’s in danger of being arrested, locked up, and put on trial in the Hague, for the same thing Israel is being accused of right now."
A couple postscripts:
Oct. 2009, Judge Richard Goldstone, talking to Bill Moyers:
Moyers: When you say, "I’m a Zionist," in your case, what does that mean?
Goldstone: Well, what it means, that I fully support Israel’s right to exist. That’s for the Jewish people to have their own national homeland, in Israel…
Moyers: Israelis claim that if you hold them to this standard that you’d just described, that law prescribes for conflict, any democracy that’s fighting terrorism is likely to find itself dragged into an international court of justice.
Goldstone: Take the United States fighting wars in Kosovo and Iraq and Afghanistan. They have certainly at a high level, gone to extremes to protect innocent civilians. Where they’ve made mistakes, and mistakes have been made, in Kosovo, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, apologies have followed. The United States, in general, has accepted and tried its best, with the assistance of military lawyers, has tried its best to avoid violating international humanitarian law. So, it seems to me this is a smokescreen. I’ve got no doubt that the laws of war are sufficient to cover the situation of fighting what is now termed asymmetric war… Assuming the United States fighting Taliban, started bombing the whole food infrastructure of the people in the area where Taliban are- plowing up fields, bombing food factories, I don’t believe that this would be accepted as legitimate by the people of the United States.
Feb. 14, 2010, McClatchy, US apologizes for killing of 12 Afghan civilians:
Two rockets landed some 300 yards off target, killing the 12 civilians and wounding one.
"We deeply regret this tragic loss of life," said Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. general who leads international forces in Afghanistan. "The current operation in Central Helmand is aimed at restoring security and stability to this vital area of Afghanistan. It’s regrettable that in the course of our joint efforts, innocent lives were lost."
McChrystal telephoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai to apologize for what he called the "unfortunate incident." The Afghan leader had cautioned the forces, as the operation began, to "exercise absolute caution to avoid harming civilians." The death of innocent Afghans in the war, often caused by misdirected air strikes, has inflamed public opinion in Afghanistan.
