<b>On his return from Afghanistan, BBC world affairs editor John Simpson reveals how his attitude to covering stories about violence and suffering has changed. </b><br />
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<font color="Red"><b>John Simpson has reported from around 30 war zones.</b></font><br />
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<font color="Blue"><b>The idea that some civilians are decent and righteous, while others deserve everything they get, or else should not have been in the way, seems to me to be intolerable.</b></font> <br />
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hope I never did think that attacks on civilians - any civilians - were justified but now I know for certain they are not.<br />
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Having been through the first and second Gulf Wars, and watched the wars in the former Yugoslavia and the Nato bombing of Belgrade in 1999, <b>I do not really care any longer what the cause is. It is the civilians on the receiving-end who matter. </b><br />
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It is that life itself is immensely valuable. Not just the lives of people who think and look and maybe worship like you and me, people who are attractive or well-educated or rich, people who are the right type of Christian or the right type of Muslim. All lives.<br />
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Still, just because something is obvious does not automatically mean it is totally lacking in value.<br />
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I am certainly not going to stop going to the kind of places where these things happen. But, at the grand old age of 62, my reaction to them has changed.<br />
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The fact is, my time reporting on violence and bombings in places like Baghdad and Kabul has shown me one essential thing: that the lives of the poor, the stupid, the old, the ugly, are no less precious to them and to the people around them, than the life of my little son Rafe is precious to me. <br />
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<br />
<font color="Red"><b>John Simpson has reported from around 30 war zones.</b></font><br />
<br />
<font color="Blue"><b>The idea that some civilians are decent and righteous, while others deserve everything they get, or else should not have been in the way, seems to me to be intolerable.</b></font> <br />
<br />
hope I never did think that attacks on civilians - any civilians - were justified but now I know for certain they are not.<br />
<br />
Having been through the first and second Gulf Wars, and watched the wars in the former Yugoslavia and the Nato bombing of Belgrade in 1999, <b>I do not really care any longer what the cause is. It is the civilians on the receiving-end who matter. </b><br />
<br />
It is that life itself is immensely valuable. Not just the lives of people who think and look and maybe worship like you and me, people who are attractive or well-educated or rich, people who are the right type of Christian or the right type of Muslim. All lives.<br />
<br />
Still, just because something is obvious does not automatically mean it is totally lacking in value.<br />
<br />
I am certainly not going to stop going to the kind of places where these things happen. But, at the grand old age of 62, my reaction to them has changed.<br />
<br />
The fact is, my time reporting on violence and bombings in places like Baghdad and Kabul has shown me one essential thing: that the lives of the poor, the stupid, the old, the ugly, are no less precious to them and to the people around them, than the life of my little son Rafe is precious to me. <br />
<br />
<br />
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