Dear Steve, I like what you right very much it's thoughtful and rational and I agree with most of what you say. Killing children in Gaza is as wrong as it was on October 7th but terrible as it is to say so your example of refusing to kill a child that his father is using as a hostage is something you would not do is too simple. The fathe…
Dear Steve, I like what you right very much it's thoughtful and rational and I agree with most of what you say. Killing children in Gaza is as wrong as it was on October 7th but terrible as it is to say so your example of refusing to kill a child that his father is using as a hostage is something you would not do is too simple. The father who is also a fighter may have already killed someone in your family and may be threatening to kill another of your children and you believe he believes in his own and his child's martyrdom. We come to these situations with enormous complexities from our own experience that make us damaged and damaging. These are tragedies not just right and wrong choices. My own experience makes me guilty and afraid. I wouldn't join the Zimbabwe Liberation party because I would not join people who might kill my parents. Instead I joined sympathisers of South African freedom. Definitely a non-combatant, I lived in Zambia and woke one night to the Rhodesian SAS bombing liberation fighters near my home. We put our children on mattresses on the floor, found our passports but had to wait till the morning. I terrified myself by wondering what I would do if the Rhodesian SAS were defeated and one desperate man came knocking on my door asking for help. Of course the Rhodesian won that battle. Zambians were not seasoned fighters. To add even more complexity many Rhodesian soldiers were black conscripts - not those in the SAS of course - but how was life for the families of black conscripts faced with freedom fighters? Where do we run to?
Dear Steve, I like what you right very much it's thoughtful and rational and I agree with most of what you say. Killing children in Gaza is as wrong as it was on October 7th but terrible as it is to say so your example of refusing to kill a child that his father is using as a hostage is something you would not do is too simple. The father who is also a fighter may have already killed someone in your family and may be threatening to kill another of your children and you believe he believes in his own and his child's martyrdom. We come to these situations with enormous complexities from our own experience that make us damaged and damaging. These are tragedies not just right and wrong choices. My own experience makes me guilty and afraid. I wouldn't join the Zimbabwe Liberation party because I would not join people who might kill my parents. Instead I joined sympathisers of South African freedom. Definitely a non-combatant, I lived in Zambia and woke one night to the Rhodesian SAS bombing liberation fighters near my home. We put our children on mattresses on the floor, found our passports but had to wait till the morning. I terrified myself by wondering what I would do if the Rhodesian SAS were defeated and one desperate man came knocking on my door asking for help. Of course the Rhodesian won that battle. Zambians were not seasoned fighters. To add even more complexity many Rhodesian soldiers were black conscripts - not those in the SAS of course - but how was life for the families of black conscripts faced with freedom fighters? Where do we run to?