The BBC reported today that five children were killed in Afghanistan by Australian troops.
Where the heck was Jeremy Bowen when this happened!
“Australian special forces clearing houses in Uruzgan province in a hunt for militants, and came under attack.
They fired back at Taleban insurgents, and five children were among the dead.”
The Aussie government went on to state that they always try to avoid civilian casualties.
So let’s get this right: non-muslim soldiers from a western country fighting thousands of miles from home kill innocent muslim children and there is no TV footage of the dead infants or the wounded adults, no demonstrations on the streets of Canberra or Sydney, no calls of “Death to Australia”, “Death to the Christians”. Why? It was an “accident”. The soldiers were firing in self-defence. They didn’t know that there were children in the houses.
What a contrast to the worldwide reaction to Israel killing children in a military action against their neighbour whose “government” has fired over 6000 rockets at its citizens for several years and whose charter proclaims its aim is to destroy Israel and all Jews, everywhere. If you replace the word “Australia” by “Israel” in the BBC article and “Afghanistan” by “Gaza” , what’s the difference?
No doubt the Spanish judiciary will be investigating? Human Rights Watch? the UN? Clerics will make inflammatory statements about Australia? The Australian flag will be burned and trampled? None of this will happen because the soldiers were not Israeli and they were not Jews.
Read the article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7887520.stm