this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2023
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I would argue that it's quite easy to judge, at any distance, the collective punishment of civilians through the withholding of the essentials of life.
We've a referendum this weekend largely on whether we're ready to confront uncomfortable and complex consequences of a history of colonial violence. What's more difficult is reconciling these sorts of statements from a government that says it is.
The Aboriginal tribes didn't slaughter civilians, or rape and murder aid workers, to be fair.
We had a period of frontier wars that lasted 150 years. It was grossly asymmetric but the estimates for colonial casualties run into the thousands.
Were those casualties civilians though, or were they mostly soldiers? That's the key difference.
Good thing war is so blank and white, makes it easier to affirm my side is the good side
There's one side that have done some very questionable things over the years, and there's another that went out of their way to massacre civilians. I'm by no means a fan of Israel, but Hamas are outright evil.