We Don't Target Civilians. posted by Richard Seymour

Al Jazeera staff have set up a new blog, and it is exquisite.

Meanwhile, although I have little time for the antics of ex-RCPers, this article from Brendan O'Neill is worth a look:

When NATO – with Clinton and Blair at the helm – bombed the headquarters of RTS (Serbian state television and radio) in central Belgrade on April 23, 1999, it was no joke. It was the real thing. In the middle of the night – at 2:20 a.m. – cruise missiles rained down on RTS headquarters, destroying the entrance and leaving at least one studio in ruins. Over 120 people were working in the building at the time; at least 16 were killed and another 16 were injured – all of them civilians, most of them technicians and support staff. The BBC's John Simpson described seeing "the body of a make-up artist … lying in a dressing room."

O'Neill, typically, throws the abortee out with the bath-water. The urge to bomb Al Jazeera was self-evidently no joke either. Al Jazeera has been bombed a number of times, each time by 'accident'. In 2001, their office in Kabul was destroyed by smart bombs. The 2003 attack on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, where many media were stationed, was interpreted as a deliberate assault on Al Jazeera. But the basic point stands - the Kosovo war was such a turn-on for so many liberals that they could not detect the smouldering carrion right under their noses. And it isn't as if this wasn't foreseen. As consummately establishment a journalist as Kate Adie went to considerable efforts to inform RTE Radio 1's Sunday Show audience that the US specifically planned to target independent media before the assault on Iraq. But needs must, and this is too important a point to neglect, so I am Backing Boris even though he is a complete and utter berk.