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Killing in Self Defense Is Not "Assassination"

November 20, 2012 @ 11:20 am

When Seal Team Six killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, no one described it as an "assassination." Why not? Because Osama wasn't a civilian political leader; he was a terrorist combatant who had declared war on America, and tried to continue his attacks in any way possible.

Why, then, have the New York Times and other media outlets referred to Israel's killing of Ahmed Jabaari in Gaza as "an assassination?" He was the military commander of a terrorist organization, Hamas, which remains at war with Israel, and takes pride in aiming deadly rockets at Israeli civilian targets every day. There's a big difference between assassination-the targeting of civilian leaders for political purposes-and striking armed combatants in self defense in the midst of an ongoing war.

American media ought to recognize and emphasize that distinction.

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Comments (4)


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  • cigarfan wrote...
    Medved's Semantics
    November 20, 2012 3:52 pm
    One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Americans are finally grasping that US corporate media is biased towards Israel.
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  • SeattleD wrote...
    Apparently no one cares enough about the Israeli situation
    November 20, 2012 6:11 pm
    to leave an opinion.

    Personally I think it's time for them to just fight it out. The Palestinians and Israelis deserve each other, like a married couple who can't live together peacefully but refuse to get a divorce.

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  • Drool wrote...
    The DIfference is.....
    November 22, 2012 7:40 am
    There was no attempt to capture Jabaari. The Bin Laden raid was to capture or kill him....and collect intel as a nice byproduct.

    The United States in the past has conducted assassinations. The killing of Isoroku Yamamoto is widely considered an assassination. We conducted many in Viet Nam and do to this day with drone strikes on individuals.

    Get over the semantics...it was a targeted hit....an assassination.

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  • cigarfan wrote...
    Correction
    November 23, 2012 12:30 pm
    Medved states above "When Seal Team Six killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, no one described it as an "assassination." The truth is MIT professor Noam Chomsky -did describe it as an assassination.
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