Why We Should Withhold Judgment Until We Know The Facts
Timothy Sandefur on Jan 30th 2006
Kuznicki is right, of course, that for us to seize innocent women and children and hold them as hostages for terrorists to come out of hiding is simply not an acceptable military tactic. However, 1) this story is from Reuters, which long ago sacrificed its claims of reliability as far as I’m concerned, 2) it’s based on excerpts from sources we are not being allowed to see for greater context, 3) it would be highly naive for us to assume that the wives of terrorists are necessarily innocent civilian bystanders who have nothing to do with their husbands’ business, and 4) one notes there is no accusation that these women were abused. What we ought to do with stories like this is wait for more information before assuming that our military is guilty of wrongdoing. They might be, and they might not be.
Filed in The Barracks
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