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Vail Daily letter: ‘Outrage’ over self-defense

In Iraq, some 1,600 people were killed in July. U.N. envoy Mladenov: “I am concerned about the rising number of casualties in Iraq, particularly among the civilian population.” U.S. State Department: No comment.

In Syria, more than 1,800 people have been killed in the last 10 days. The U.S. State Department’s only Syria-related press release on Monday was an announcement that it was funding a project “to document the current condition of cultural heritage sites in Syria and assess the future restoration, preservation and protection needs for those sites.”

In Nigeria, Boko Haram has turned its fury on Muslims who try to fight back against the jihadist group. Nearly 3,000 people killed this year and 500,000 made refugees. A spokesperson for the U.N.’s Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement in his name, condemning Boko’s attacks. U.S. State Department: No comment.



In Libya, 22 people killed over the weekend as Islamists attacked Tripoli’s airport. Another 200 people killed last month. Joint statement by France, Italy, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S.: “We strongly condemn the violence.”

Over the weekend there was immense coverage of an Israeli strike near a U.N.-run school that killed 10 people, three of them members of Islamic Jihad. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the strike “a moral outrage and a criminal act” that had to be “swiftly investigated.” The U.S. State Department pronounced itself “appalled”.

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How peculiar that the Jewish state arouses a level of condemnation that never seems to apply equally elsewhere. The world is “outraged” by Israeli self-defense but only “concerned” when Muslims kill Muslims.

Bernie Schwartz


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