be just

Christian Support for Killing Iraqis : "Among the things about the Iraq War that I have never been able to understand is how American Christians have been able, in good conscience, to support this war. After all, no one can deny that neither Iraq nor the Iraqi people ever attacked the United States. That makes the United States the aggressor — the attacker — in this particular conflict. How could American Christians support the killing of Iraqis in such a war of aggression? How could they reconcile this with God’s sacred commandment, Thou shalt not murder. One possibility is that Americans initially viewed the Iraq War as one of self-defense. Placing their trust in their president and vice-president, they came to the conclusion that Iraq was about to unleash WMDs on American cities. Therefore, they concluded, America had the right to defend itself from this imminent attack, much as an individual has the moral right to use deadly force to defend his life from someone who is trying ...

Official: NATO Kills Seven Civilians in Afghanistan | News From Antiwar.com : "The civilian death toll in Afghanistan continued to rise today as US forces launched an overnight operation killing six men in Zabul. The military insists that those killed were militants, but a member of Zabul’s provincial council insisted that the six killed were all civilians. Several other locals likewise insisted they were civilians. The US insists that it will look into the matter. NATO forces also killed a civilian in Helmand Province, shooting him when he refused to stop for a passing NATO patrol. They assumed he was a suicide bomber, according to officials, though they later confirmed that he was not."

Robert Naiman: Would It Kill Us to Apologize to Iran for the Coup? When President Obama told al-Arabiya , "if countries like Iran are willing to unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us," the most widely reported Iranian response was President Ahmedinijad's suggestion that if the U.S. truly wants good relations with Iran, it should begin by apologizing for U.S. "crimes" against Iran, including U.S. support for the coup that overthrew Iranian democracy in 1953.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Many killed in Pakistan bombing : "More than 30 people have been killed and dozens injured in a bomb attack on a religious procession in Pakistan's Punjab province, officials say. The attack targeted Shia worshippers in the town of Dera Ghazi Khan. They were leaving a mosque when the bomb went off. It is not clear who carried out the attack or whether it was the work of a suicide bomber. Sectarian tensions in southern Punjab have in recent years been aggravated by the growing strength of Sunni Taleban."

ei: In Gaza, a "ranch" turned to rubble : "'There is nothing left for us to live for -- the house was lost and the furniture destroyed,' lamented Suad Muhammad Abed Rabu, a 53-year-old mother sitting in front of a fire stove in a still intact room of her badly damaged home. 'We prefer to die in our demolished house rather than live life as outcasts,' she said. 'Since we were born we have been suffering. Since 1948 we have moved from one refuge to another and from one war to another. All, including Arabs and Europeans, are conspiring against us, they don't want us to live.'"

ei: Palestinian boycott committee salutes S. African dock workers : "The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, BNC, warmly salutes the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU), a member of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), for its decision today not to offload an Israeli ship that is due to arrive in Durban, South Africa, on 8 February. Coming weeks after the massive Israeli massacre in Gaza, this distinguished expression by SATAWU of effective solidarity with the Palestinian people in general, and with Gaza in particular, sets a historic precedent that reminds us of the first such action during the apartheid era taken by Danish dock workers in 1963, when they decided not to offload ships carrying South African products, triggering a similar boycott in Sweden, England and elsewhere."

Afghanistan says foreign fighters coming from Iraq | World | Reuters KABUL (Reuters) - With the reduction of violence in Iraq, foreign militants were now flooding into Afghanistan to join Taliban insurgents battling Afghan and international troops, the Afghan defence minister said on Wednesday. There was a 33 percent rise in insurgent attacks in Afghanistan in 2008, according to NATO-led forces. Violence is expected to rise further in 2009 as Washington prepares to send up to 25,000 more troops into new areas of the southern Pashtun heartlands. Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said there were about 15,000 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan but their numbers were being swelled by foreign insurgents moving in from Iraq, where violence has fallen after a U.S. troop "surge" and other measures.