A Question of Balance
The final question is how civilized countries should deal with terrorists who hide among women and children. A country under attack must defend its citizens. Period. But when such a country does respond, the media focus on the death toll among the innocents without reflecting what caused the need for military reprisal in the first place.
How can the civilized world establish and enforce the principle that civilians are never to be used as human shields? We must have a process for irrefutable international condemnation of terrorists who employ such measures. Failing to do so would mean the terrorists win either on the field of war or in the field of public opinion-while the defenders lose either on the field of war or in the field of international opinion-a lose-lose for the civilized world.
The notion of disproportion must be between the side that cares about civilian deaths and the side that revels in them. We must support those who endanger themselves to protect innocent civilians and condemn those who endanger civilians to protect themselves.
Fighting terrorism certainly gives life to the sage old adage, "Never get into a fight with ugly people-because they have nothing to lose."
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