In Case of Doubt...

Australia has two Ann Coulter wanna-bes, Miranda Devine of the Herald and Janet Albrechtsen of the Australian. Neither is as entertainingly loopy as Little Miss Get-Clinton, but if ever I find myself doubting the political philosophy I've chosen, I know I can just turn to Miranda's or Janet's latest offering and they will remind me of why I hold the Right in contempt. Today, Ms Albrechtsen surpassed herself:

LAST week a small Iraqi girl holding a basket approached coalition soldiers in a southern Iraqi village. The basket was detonated.

The young girl and five soldiers died. Some days later another small child with another basket approached a group of soldiers in the same village. Do the soldiers shoot the young child?

That is a hypothetical scenario. But real-life moral dilemmas like these arise in war. They arose in Afghanistan. They will arise in Iraq. They require spilt-second, do-or-die decisions from soldiers.

I suppose this is a cut above "Sex! - Now I've got your attention..." but - well, words fail me. If reports are true, coalition troops have been ambushed by Iraqi soldiers dressed as civilians or pretending to surrender. Naturally, the likelihood of nervous GIs taking out civvies and bona fide surrendering soldiers is increased by such underhand tactics (let's leave aside the question as to whether the Iraqis are overmuch obligated to obey the rules of war, given it's their country being illegally invaded). So here's a real-life, as-events-unfold, example of the slippery nature of combat morality that Janet could have made reference to. Instead we get this shite about boobytrapped little girls. From now on, if trigger-happy soldiers were to blow away a smiling flower-child, I hope for Janet's sake they hadn't just been reading The Australian.