It boggles my mind the clear bias that oozes from mainstream media outlets. This week, Melania Trump’s plagiarism fiasco dominated television and computer screens, but barely a murmur was heard in regards to the U.S-backed coalition in Syria that was responsible for bombarding and killing innocent civilians.
On Tuesday, July 19, an airstrike was launched in northern Syria in the city of Manbij, which is currently under ISIS control and is one of the major Syrian territories that borders Turkey.
This very airstrike allegedly killed 56 civilians. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an organization based in the United Kingdom, among those reported dead in this airstrike were 11 children.
According to other sources, such as Syrian activists, this attack claimed the lives of at least 73 and up to 125 or more innocent people.
And according to the Syrian Observatory, since the initiation of airstrikes against Manbij at the end of May, the death toll of civilians has totaled to at least 167, which includes 44 children, 17 women, and eight prisioners.
And although the United States promises to look into these allegations, it will not discontinue or temporarily stop these airstrikes.
"We'll ... continue to do all we can to protect civilians from harm. Being scrupulously careful in avoiding civilian casualties and being transparent about this issue is a reflection of the civilized nature of this coalition,” said the U.S Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter, in relation to looking into these numbers.
But when the President of the Syrian National Coalition, Anas Alabdah, asked the United States to arrest these airstrikes until further investigations have been made, the United States refused.
Army Colonel Christopher Garver spoke of the intricacy and complexity of the fight in Manbij between ISIS and the U.S-backed Coalition. He stated that due to the significance of the city with how it is situated near Raqqa, the ISIS stronghold, and borders Turkey, there is more intensity in the fight for control of the territory. He said that ISIS was sending civilians out ““towards the lines, trying to draw fire, so they can use that either as a propaganda tool or in some way get a benefit.”
Regardless of this reasoning, killing civilians is not an option. Killing children is not option. Killing whole families is NOT AN OPTION.
If these allegations are proven true, this will be the coalition’s most deadly attack on civilians since its formation to combat ISIS.
Pictures show children, who were as young as three-years-old, among the pile of dead. Children. Three-years-old.
Where is the justification in this?
Where is the outrage?
Do these children’s lives not matter?
Because they happened to be born in a contested area?
And happen to have an Arab sounding name?
Are their lives now considered mere collateral damage?
Because one of the world’s most powerful countries, if not the most powerful, made a “mistake”?
Where is the humanity?
These civilians are reported to have been held against their will in the territory and ISIS is using them as effective human shields.
But this fact does not seem to matter, as long as the end justifies the means, right?
So yes, keep talking about plagiarizing schemes and completely ignore the fact that the most powerful nation in the world has the death of three-years-old on its hand.
And then we have a problem when these Syrian refugees enter our country, trying to escape the devastation and blood and war that We, America, has attributed to. How hypocritical and sad.
