Another low called Qana

What introduced a whole new dimension to civilian protection in times of war was the advent of aerial bombardments since their effects were widespread, indiscriminating and allow the perpetrators to emerge relatively unscathed. To Italy goes the honour of introducing to the world this malevolent form of warfare, when its air force bombed Tripoli in 1911. It was a strategy that got further refined, if that is the right word, in the subsequent Great War, or World War I. An international treaty, drafted in the first flush of the revulsion caused by the horror of it all, attempted to universally ban 8220;aerial bombardment for the purpose of terrorising the civilian population, of destroying or damaging private property not of military character, or of injuring non-combatants8221;. That draft treaty was destined never to come into force.

What followed were the indescribable excesses of the Spanish Civil War and World War II. The first gave us Guernica, which caused Pablo Picasso to grab his art materials and furiously paint one of the most powerful anti-war statements in modern art, with its image of a mother clutching a dead child, and the dumb agony of a dying horse. It inspired Pablo Neruda to set down in his poem, 8216;I am explaining a few things8217;, the following lines: 8220;Bandits with planes/ Came through the sky to kill children/ and the blood of children ran through the streets/ without fuss, like children8217;s blood8221;. The second, gave us the London Blitz, the Dresden bombing, in which over 800 British and US aircraft rained their bombs on the German city for two consecutive days, and the hitherto unimaginable and ending nightmare of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Today, the Fourth Geneva Convention, 1949, and its two protocols of 1977 constitute the basic international laws governing the conduct of war. Their scope is considerably more narrow than that attempted by the earlier draft treaty, but they nevertheless expressly prohibit the attacking of civilians 8212; 8220;including direct attacks and indiscriminate attacks against areas in which civilians are present8221;. They mandate that 8220;there is to be no destruction of property unless justified by military necessity8221; and that 8220;civilians must not be subject to collective punishment and reprisals8221;. Incidentally, the convention and protocols applied not just to a declared war 8212; the current strikes on South Lebanon cannot perhaps be construed as a declared war 8212; but to 8220;armed conflict, even if the state of war is not recognised by one of them8221;.

International apathy to the Middle East conflagration, fuelled largely by the marked reluctance of the United States to get Israel to the negotiating table, amounts to a betrayal of universal principles, international law and human history.

Almost 70 years ago, just as World War II was declared, an American president wrote thus to the governments of the nations involved: 8220;The ruthless bombing from the air of civilians in unfortified centres of the population during the course of hostilities8230; has resulted in the maiming and in the death of thousands of defenseless men, women and children, has sickened the hearts of every civilised man and woman, and has profoundly shocked the conscience of humanity8230; I am therefore addressing this urgent appeal to every government which may be engaged in hostilities publicly to affirm its determination that its armed forces shall in no event, and under no circumstances, undertake the bombardment from the air of civilian populations or of unfortified cities.8221;

The current incumbent of the White House would do well to acquaint himself with the words and thoughts of his predecessor.