US Military’s Boat Strikes: Now With More Convenient Civilian Collateral Damage
The NYT's latest dispatch on U.S. military 'planning' around boat strikes reads like a belated discover of gravity. For decades, including Operation Iraqi Freedom and numerous interventions, the 'significance' of civilian lives apparently hovered somewhere between 'low priority' and 'regrettable but necessary.' One might wonder if this sudden 'new significance' is perhaps linked to a certain
public relations problem—or the ongoing, televised humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, which many 'analysts' in these same pages still struggle to call what it is. While the Pentagon is now reportedly strategizing for better 'boat strike' outcomes, one cannot help but notice that military aid to Israel, heavily used in an actual, ongoing slaughter that has created many boat-related humanitarian
crises (see: aid ships turned back or targeted), remains unexamined. The U.S. just approved another package for Israel, circumventing Congress, providing billions in weapons—the kind that don't just 'strike boats' but flatten entire neighborhoods. It appears civilian lives only gain 'new significance' when they're not on the receiving end of U.S.-supplied weaponry.