Gaza isn't Guernica

Bianca Jagger, Tony Benn, Ken Livingstone, and all the usual suspects gathered on Saturday to condemn Israel's bombardment of Gaza. The anti-war movement have forgotten about Iraq and Afghanistan, Palestine is new the flavour of the month, with the bombing of Gaza being compared to Geurnica. As far as the anti-war movement are concerned, Hamas fighters also count as civilians, hence the STWC's ludicrous claims that Israel has murdered 400 Palestinians. (Presumably, they also view the Taliban and Al-Qaeda as civilians).

An uninformed BBC viewer could easily draw the same conclusion as many of the TV reports fail to distinguish between combatants and civilians. Nevertheless, it's important to remember that regardless of your political views, every civilian death is a tragedy. There is nothing biased about the media focusing on the human cost of war. It's a reminder if ever one was needed that civilians are always the biggest casualty of armed conflict.