Collateral damage

I just caught part of Shimon Peres's interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN. When pressed on the issue of civilian casualties, Peres compared the Israeli action favorably to NATO's campaign in Kosovo. Unless I misheard, Peres just claimed that 10,000 civilians died in the Kosovo war. That number is wildly out of step with the results ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

I just caught part of Shimon Peres's interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN. When pressed on the issue of civilian casualties, Peres compared the Israeli action favorably to NATO's campaign in Kosovo. Unless I misheard, Peres just claimed that 10,000 civilians died in the Kosovo war. That number is wildly out of step with the results of independent assessments. I have no doubt that Israel has tried hard to minimize civilian deaths, but I think Peres may have indulged in hyperbole here to put the Israeli action in the most favorable light.

I just caught part of Shimon Peres's interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN. When pressed on the issue of civilian casualties, Peres compared the Israeli action favorably to NATO's campaign in Kosovo. Unless I misheard, Peres just claimed that 10,000 civilians died in the Kosovo war. That number is wildly out of step with the results of independent assessments. I have no doubt that Israel has tried hard to minimize civilian deaths, but I think Peres may have indulged in hyperbole here to put the Israeli action in the most favorable light.

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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