To think, if you kill children, you kill children?

[BratinghamPalace]

Listening to the BBC this weekend I heard a few people discussing the south of France murders of children and the Rabi. Seems Israelis killed some children in Gaza by air strike but claim it is different. I say why? As a mother of three I think if you are a lunatic in France, an American soldier in Afghanistan, the American army or the Israeli army, if you kill children you are a killer of children. Be it by gun, or drone or air strike. If we all say "enough" then they might stop. Unreasonable?

It's not even when it's close to home as such either. A lot of appalling things happen close to home and never make the news.

Millie Dowler made the news (and quite rightly) Madeleine McCann, Holly-andJessica make the news. Locally to me, last year, in the local rag, there was a case of a child, locked in her bedroom, by her mother and partner, and kept there for months. The authorities found the child had hung herself and been dead "for some time" when they found her. Her mother admitted she hadn't been upstairs to look in on the daughter for 6 weeks. Where was that on the BBC? Not even local BBC mentioned it.

They should all make the news-every last one of them- and we shouldn't ever stop being shocked by it.

OP I tend to agree, if you drop a bomb on a town you are every much a child killer as that evil man was

You know what, all the stories upset me, all of them. and I dont think we ever become sensitised to it

But I think a school killings affects us more as we can imagine it, we can imagine a coach crash

fortunately for us, we cannot imagine a fanime, or a major earthquake hence its not something we find as easy to dwell on? does that make sense?

How awful Bucharest

I've heard of things locally which haven't made the news for some reason as much as you'd think. A mother who killed her two children before killing herself.

The news seems very unbalanced really - so then you wonder what is the point of it ?

Porcamiseria- I agree. I consider myself quite hard.....but can't help irrationally being pleased that dd's classroom for the past 3 yrs is right at the back of the school, and upstairs, and just about the furthest classroom away from that random nutter who might, in a zillion-to-one chance decide to go in there and spread evil.

(and I realise I'm a madster for even having thought it)

nah, I think the same. I look at the large metal gates at DS school and feel very relieved- the Toulouse story really really upset me
why, cos selfishly I could imagine it happening to us....

I thank god very often that I am my DC are lucky enough to have been born in a western country, in this century

we are so so fucking lucky, and sometimes I dont think we even realise it

if you look you realise daily that there are terrible child abuse issues in the UK, they do make the news just not the front page

I think its almost pointless to wonder why they dont to be honest. What will be gained from another baby p story? Really it just inflames the media, belittles SS and acheived fuck all, sadly. It does not even honour the chuld that died. But thats just my opinion

Am I right in saying that mothers in the North of Ireland got together at a certain stage and said enough is enough? And they had quite an impact. If mothers in Israel AND Gaza got together and campaigned then who knows what mountains it could move.

There are organisations like this mothers of the 'disappeared'. I think it can make a difference. I think you are right that if the mothers in Gaza and Israel got together, it would send a message to all the people who think of children as collateral damage.

You're probably right porca that reporting some things would do no good - it's just that news reporting seems so random to me sometimes, and as though it doesn't reflect reality.

So, I don't always follow the news very closely. But I do try to stay informed if that makes sense.

NI PeacePeople

I have had the good fortune to meet Ciaran McKeown. Amazing man.

A very interesting point OP and one i think about often - Personally I think that it can become a grey area. What if you are in the army and in countries like Congo where a child may be pointing a machine gun at you? do you shoot them? What about dropping bombs out of a plane over Germany and Poland? Or working in military intelligence and giving information to troops which may have led to them bombing a village - as the intelligence you received was faulty? Are these all 'child killers' in the same way someone pointing a gun at the head of an unarmed child is? The result is the same - so if not, why not?

My mother is from South Africa. She cannot bear Nelson Mandela as she recalls how children were killed during his campaign. As the saying goes - or something along these lines - one person's 'criminal' will be another's 'freedom fighter'.

Sorry, i meant to say mother in law, not that it changes my point.

I was on holiday a few years ago having breakfast with an elderly Israeli man holidaying alone. His wife was supposed to be with him, however she was a neurosurgeon who'd stayed home to try and save a 6 year old Israeli boy with shrapnel in his head which hit him when rockets were fired in to a residential Israeli area.

As opposed to the 100x more Palestinian kids who are similalrly afflicted, and have far less access to medicine. The Israeli's dont drop marshmallows you know.

And I do agree that, if anything, the media (especially the American media) presents a pro Israeli stance.

Well I possibly agree with the bit in brackets, but as for the rest....say WHAT?????????????????????????????????

But have no wish to get into a points score: the OPs basic premise is imho completely valid

Or possibly reading them wearing different glasses?

Straight back at ya Seeker!

The cases are different in that in the French case, the gunman deliberately targeted a school and deliberately murdered children, they didn't just die in the crossfire. In the Israeli case, they generally won't deliberately target civilian infrastructure if that is it's only purpose. However, I don't buy into this whole "one Jewish life is worth 100 times that of a gentile" argument that is used by some to somehow make Jewish deaths seem uniquely horrific, that they are so much worse than the wrongful death of a gentile. All lives of innocents, especially children, are equally precious. I don't think injustice ever has a valid religious excuse.

I don't think most people believe that the life of a Jew is worth that of 100 non-Jews, but there is still huge guilt about the Holocaust, which may have an influence.

Regardless of what you think about the Israel/Palestine situation, I don't think you can compare the random killing of children (amongst other people) included in general air strikes/mortar fire etc, as part of an ongoing war in a conflict area with the deliberate targeting and shooting at close range of children (supposedly to make a political statement) in a country that is totally removed from the war zone in question.

Of course both acts are vile and deplorable, but one is 'war' where there will always be collateral damage and the other is murder plain and simple.

Well Hilly, if it were my child who had been killed, I don't think calling it 'collateral damage' would make me feel any better at the loss. Dropping bombs in an area where there are innocent civilians including children is murder to my mind, just as much as if they were shot at close range.

i agree with OP . You are right.My country had gone through the war and i don't see how some child in France is more important than in my country or in Palestine.
Child is a child-doesn't make him better if he is jewish,german.or any other religion or nationality.