The AP reported this morning that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in an airstrike this morning. Thank God for that!
Sadly, there may have been innocent civilians killed in the same attack. May God have mercy on their souls.
Al-Qaeda websites are hailing al-Zarqawi's death as martyrdom. That is laughable. I believe that martyrdom is real, and that a person can achieve it, but what al-Zarqawi did during his life was not holy war in defense of Islam (and by saying "Islam" I mean the religious way of life, and not the hegemonic, authoritarian deviation adhered to by al-Zarqawi, Bin Laden and company) or in defense of the weak, the innocent or in the pursuit of justice.
Al-Zarqawi was not a holy warrior. He was a mass murderer. In civil society he would have been apprehended, tried and then, if convicted, punished. He was in a war zone (one which we created but which he manipulated for his own twisted objectives) and this was an appropriate means of dealing with him.
The death of innocent civilians, particularly children, is heartbreaking. Despite seeing and reading about children dying in war zones daily, this tragedy still causes a gut wrenching, soul crushing pain. Did the people among whom al-Zarqawi was living know that he was a mass murderer? Did they have access to that information? If so, does that make it acceptable that the children died?
It would not be acceptable to me if those were my children. I could not accept that fate for my nieces and nephews. But what about my children's friends? What about the children of my neighbors down the street whom I see regularly but have never met? What about the children whom I have never met, whom I did not even know existed? If killing innocent children was the price to be paid for killing al-Zarqawi, and killing al-Zarqawi meant saving countless other innocent lives including those of children, then would this be acceptable to me?
Again, I would not accept trading my children's lives, nor the lives of any children with whom I had any connection. But what about children I did not know? Would my answer be any different if I knew that future lives being saved were those of my loved ones? I wonder what the bereaved family members of al-Zarqawi's victims feel about the death of children in the airstrike against al-Zarqawi. What sensation does retribution produce? Joy? Relief? Is it a salve for the pain they feel at the loss of their loved one?
I also wonder, if our military knew where to strike, then did they not see the presence of children? What prevented them from sending in soldiers instead of missiles? Would the children have been spared if there was a gun battle rather than a missile strike?
I do not profess to know, but these questions do bother me. These questions might bother me a lot less if my parent, spouse or sibling was to be one of the soldiers sent in to capture al-Zarqawi. That would change the equation dramatically.
In the end this kind of ethical gymnastics reinforces the need to elect/select leaders who are grounded in sound morals. I need to believe that when the leaders responsible for these impossible choices say they "regret the loss of innocent life" they truly feel it deep down inside.
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