Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Where's the outrage?

The BBC is carrying a story today about the wife of a terrorist leader who was killed in a drone attack. Buried quite a way down the article is the fact that four children were killed too. When the bomb hit the house, there were actually 40 people present - but not the terrorist leader, who was apparently not home.

Missing from this story: the terms "civilian casualties" and "targeted killing", pictures of dead children and families in mourning, and a general tone of moral indignation. Also missing: expressions of outrage from various Western governments, NGOs etc.

The Guardian - which doesn't even bother mentioning the children - reports approvingly that the attack delivered "a message to the notorious militant commander that western... pursuers are closing in on him."

I wonder how they would have reported this story had the attackers been Israeli and the dead Palestinian relatives of a Hamas commander, and not - as is the case - the attackers American and the victims Pakistani relatives of a Taliban commander?

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