War on terror - Where suspects have no recourse

Verify before pulling the trigger

The reporting of news does get to me as nothing seems to be definitive and a lot seems to be assumptive.

Now we hear that suspected Al Qaeda elements have been attacked and bombed out on the border between Somalia and Kenya, so, it would appear, suspects would be dead before we probably confirm that people other than terrorist elements have been killed.

If one person is being targeted and many more are being wiped out, the justification begins to find no basis in good humanitarian analysis.

In Iraq, we also hear that alleged insurgents were attacked and killed by Iraqi and coalition forces, we might well find out something to the contrary, no one can tell.

We can change the popular saying of Ronald Reagan and say, “Distrust, but verify” – however, hawks would contend that leaving suspects or alleged terrorists to dig in their trenches could lead to the preventable loss of Iraqi and coalition forces lives.

My concern really is predicated on this pre-emptive propensity to obliterate with overwhelming force using suspect and sketchy intelligence before ascertaining that what was intended has been verifiably fulfilled. Friendly fire comes to mind, and the only friendliness is the opportunity to cover up an error that has involved killing comrades in arms.