• PugJesus
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      3511 months ago

      Don’t think any civilian deaths have been reported so far, just 10 Houthi soldiers according to the Houthis themselves. We’ll see how that shakes out as more information emerges, but we also aren’t Israel - civilian casualties are something we try to avoid.

      • @thisisawayoflife
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        1611 months ago

        😂😂 except in the countries we invade…

        Source: old enough to remember Iraq and Afghanistan as an adult and have a parent that went to Vietnam.

        • PugJesus
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          11 months ago

          Yeah, I remember Iraq and Afghanistan too. I followed both very closely. Our civilian casualty ratios were far from Israel’s currently claimed 50-50 (as opposed to what it actually probably is, ie 80%+ civilians).

          Fuck, even in Vietnam the ratio wasn’t 50 fucking 50.

            • PugJesus
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              1011 months ago

              The Wikipedia source on the first link doesn’t say what the citation claims it does, if you follow it.

              On the second, that count would require, what, 80% of civilian deaths to be caused by the US? Assuming the extrapolations it reaches are correct. For a 50-50 combatant-civilian split.

              If you want to argue that as a matter of moral responsibility, fine, but the point raised above is quite clearly about military efforts to distinguish civilians from combatants in operations.

              • @[email protected]
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                11 months ago

                The Wikipedia source on the first link doesn’t say what the citation claims it does, if you follow it.

                I followed the link to the report and it’s not clear whether the 39k number is total combatant casualties, but you can just calculate from the civilian deaths where the estimate is at least 112k-122k civilian casualties out of 174k total, which is ~70%. You’re acting like that 7% difference is a big gotcha.

                And I don’t know why you’re acting like the US being responsible for 80% of casualties in Iraq is a wild idea. We massively overpowered the limited Iraqi capabilities. They had much fewer combatants and didn’t even have the ability to drop bombs. The CCR isn’t about a particular side though, since you’ll always get into muddy questions of who was responsible for a particular death. It certainly wasn’t the case that we were mostly just killing terrorists.

                • @Maggoty
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                  10 months ago

                  That’s uh… For a couple decades.

                  A better way of looking at it would be to extrapolate an average casualty rate per month.

                  Using their most up to date numbers 208k through June 2020. That’s about 1,000 deaths a month. If we do the same with their 2005 estimate, because casualties are massively front loaded… We get 2,000 deaths a month.

                  Then we need to talk about their methodology. They include local news reporting which routinely lied about casualties being fighters or civilians. For reference I remember our translator reading us an article that said our night vision goggles were X-ray vision.

                • PugJesus
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                  11 months ago

                  And I don’t know why you’re acting like the US being responsible for 80% of casualties in Iraq is a wild idea. We massively overpowered the limited Iraqi capabilities. They had much fewer combatants and didn’t even have the ability to drop bombs.

                  You… do realize that ‘massively overpowered’ =/= ‘hit as many civilians as we can’, right? Accusing the US military of having a worse civilian death ratio by a significant margin in Iraq than in Vietnam or WW2 is absolutely a wild idea.

                  I followed the link to the report and it’s not clear whether the 39k number is total combatant casualties, but you can just calculate from the civilian deaths where the estimate is at least 112k-122k civilian casualties out of 174k total, which is ~70%. You’re acting like that 7% difference is a big gotcha.

                  70% civilian deaths by all sources, not 70% by Coalition forces. That’s the difference.

                  It certainly wasn’t the case that we were mostly just killing terrorists.

                  Again, if we are discussing this not as a matter of moral responsibility for the war as a whole, but for “Military operations which killed civilians”, we very much were killing mostly enemy combatants. Coalition forces were responsible for relatively few civilian casualties from the start, and proportionally fewer as the war went on and criticism of civilian casualties became harsher. The vast majority of civilian casualties were caused by insurgents or the security forces of the Iraqi government.

                  • @[email protected]
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                    411 months ago

                    Massively overpower means you have the means and weaponry to cause significantly more collateral damage. This fantasy that the US has surgical precision with its strikes is just wishful thinking. The Pentagon document leak has specific examples of classifying civilians as enemy combatants and widespread abuse. You’re motivated enough to follow sources and question casualty claims on minutiae and then just claim it was all someone else without even a passing inclination to support your statement with data.

      • @AA5B
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        511 months ago

        Were those the 10 soldiers in pirate boats attacking a merchant ship? I don’t see any reason for sympathy

      • @postmateDumbass
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        -111 months ago

        USA killed plenty civilianscin Iraq and Afghanistan.

        • @Maggoty
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          310 months ago

          Oh look a whataboutism in the wild. Maybe this definition will help you.

          • @postmateDumbass
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            10 months ago

            Lol what a pathetic taunt.

            Edit for the ultra daft downvote crew: the fact the US killed civilians is directly relevant to the blub i responded to, the one claiming the US was bettter than Israel because it did not kill civilians.

            For the extra determined ignoramouses ive provided this as an example :

            • @Maggoty
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              110 months ago

              Mhhhmm. Didn’t read the definition I see.

              • @postmateDumbass
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                010 months ago

                Your link to the definition of ‘avoid’?

                I avoided nothing. I addressed the issue directly.

                The USA kills civilians.

                Israel does at a much faster rate. A genocidal one in fact.

                But that does not give any creedence to the notion the USA is innocent.

                QED JFC

                • @Maggoty
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                  110 months ago

                  Now you’re moving the goalpost. Dude, just admit your wrong. The US goes to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties.

                  • @postmateDumbass
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                    010 months ago

                    Nevwr moved the goal posts. You just need a bit more reading comprehension.

                    And no, civilian damage and deaths will not prevent the USA from striking targets.

                    Look up Obama’s record of drone striking weddings.

                    It is why i left the industry.

                    Ive been inside DARPA and the Pentagon discussong collateral damage.

                    Avoiding it is not a priority.

                    Why?

                    1. to be feared by tge enemy

                    2. so the enemy cannot use human shields

                    But directly targeting non combatants and hiding behind ‘faulty intelligence’ has been a common occurance.

                    Remember the car full of water and children the US blew up as they left Afghanistan?

      • @[email protected]
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        -1211 months ago

        Oh, sorry. I thought this was related to the genocide in Gaza. Completely unrelated and just trade related in the seas adjacent. Obviously we should protect profits at all costs.

        • PugJesus
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          11 months ago

          I mean, considering the Houthis aren’t targeting Israeli ships specifically, it’s not really particularly related to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, despite the Houthi claims? It’s terrorists showboating to burnish their own credentials.

          Obviously we should protect profits at all costs.

          … and what about the human lives threatened by literal terrorists attacking unarmed civilian ships with drones and rockets? Fuck 'em, huh? The people who will suffer from the economic disruption, fuck them too, right? Fucking poors, who cares about them? It’s not like there’s an ongoing global crisis with rising food prices from prior disruptions to supply lines.

          • @[email protected]
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            -1711 months ago

            Let’s not blow it out of proportion. I disagree with attacking trade routes, but there have been no casualties.

            However 12000+ Palestinians have died.

            As a civilian, I don’t want to enter a warzone or a disputed route. These people are choosing to and should be protected. However, let’s not pretend it’s not a one sided conflict, based on genocide, which Israeli government ministers have advocated for.

            I don’t own any kind f those ships, but if I did, I’d find a different route. It started with just protests against ships stopping at Israel. I wish it stayed there. How many ships can stop at Gaza with humanitarian supplies?

            • PugJesus
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              11 months ago

              Let’s not blow it out of proportion. I disagree with attacking trade routes, but there have been no casualties.

              Because Western military ships have been busy intercepting drones and rockets. This is just the first time we’ve hit back.

              However 12000+ Palestinians have died.

              Okay, how is that the fault of civilian ships going through international waters?

              As a civilian, I don’t want to enter a warzone or a disputed route. These people are choosing to and should be protected. However, let’s not pretend it’s not a one sided conflict, based on genocide, which Israeli government ministers have advocated for.

              Until the Houthis starting firing, it wasn’t a warzone or a disputed route. The route isn’t in Israeli territorial waters. It’s nowhere near Gaza or Israel.

              I don’t own any kind f those ships, but if I did, I’d find a different route.

              The only other route is all the way around Africa.

            • @grue
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              1411 months ago

              As a civilian, I don’t want to enter a warzone or a disputed route. These people are choosing to and should be protected. However, let’s not pretend it’s not a one sided conflict, based on genocide, which Israeli government ministers have advocated for.

              You do understand that the ship attacks we’re talking about in this thread are happening 1000 miles away from Israel at the clear other end of the Red Sea, right? It’s nowhere near the Gaza warzone (which borders a different sea entirely – the Mediterranean), nor is it even “disputed” by anybody legitimate.

              Literally nothing about this, except the Houthi terrorists’ choice of timing, has anything to do with Israel.

            • Justin
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              1111 months ago

              It’s a tough situation, but attacking civilians is not a valid way of protesting Israels’ attacks on civilians.