Principles in Practice: The Blog of the Objective Standard

Monday, September 18, 2006

A Foreign Policy of Nihilism?

Posted by Craig Biddle at 3:40 PM

I hesitate to post on this story because its veracity is, as of yet, uncertain; but I cannot resist because, if it is true, it means that our foreign policy is not only altruistic but also, at least partly, nihilistic.

KABUL, Afghanistan—The U.S. military said Wednesday it is looking into the unauthorized release of a photo purportedly taken by an American drone aircraft showing scores of Taliban militants at a funeral in Afghanistan. NBC-TV claimed U.S. Army officers wanted to attack the ceremony with missiles carried by the Predator drone, but were prevented under rules of battlefield engagement that bar attacks on cemeteries….

The grainy black and white photo shows what NBC says are some 190 Taliban militants standing in several rows near a vehicle in an open area of land. The black outline of a box—apparently the sight of the drone—is positioned over the group.

NBC quoted one Army officer who was involved with the spy mission as saying "we were so excited" that the group had been spotted and was in the sights of a U.S. drone. But the network quoted the officer, who was not identified, as saying that frustration soon set in after the officers realized they couldn't bomb the funeral under the military's rules of engagement.

If this report is true, it means that the Bush administration has sacrificed the good to the dead. If that is not an act of nihilism, what is?

Labels: Foreign Policy and War, Philosophy