The cost of Bombing a truck

. If the misery of others leaves you indifferent and with no feelings of sorrow, you should not be called a human being. (—Sa’adi, thirteenth century Persian poet)

Leaders in a war make statements addressed to their people, not to the world. Their actions are with an eye on their peoples, not to the whole situation.

Remembering this, we should reconsider our air war against the brutal caliphate.

We are spending millions on our airplanes and their direction – a sortie over the semi- desert can be reported as killing five enemy or destroying three trucks. It will have cost at the least thousands of dollars.  The only profiteers are the armaments makers. (The British arms fair is the biggest in the world, and sells British-made torture implements and civilian-killing land-mines and bombs)

What will it have done for the hearts and minds of those the planes fly over?  Especially the civilian casualties or those whose property is destroyed.  We do not speak their languages. They may see the Muslim jihad as more their friend than the West, which is alien.  They may have memories of the West going back to the first invasion.

We bomb – forgetting how the British responded to the Blitz. We care little about the Arab archaeological treasures as well as the civilian homes and workplaces, and our additions to the world’s loss of land and infrastructure.

We mourn the brutal executions of Westerners – but only mention in passing the horrible fates of civilians under the caliphate.  This makes clear our own preoccupations

Our leaders may say that at least they are doing something –  they do no know how to do anything else and so play with our military might that will not harm ourselves.

https://newmatilda.com/2014/10/09/pol-pot-isis-anything-flies-everything-moves