On May 7, 1915, the passenger ocean liner Lusitania, bound for Liverpool from New York City, was torpedoed by German forces off the southern coast of Ireland, near the modern-day port of Cobh.
Although the ship was full of civilians traveling to the United Kingdom, it was also being used to transport 173 tons of war supplies for the nascent conflict that was boiling in Europe. That was all the justification Germany needed to sink the ship.
Of the 1,960 people aboard, 1,197 were killed. The massacre of everyday travelers was a major factor in the eventual decision of the United States to join World War I in 1917. In fact, some historians think those 1,960 souls were intentionally placed in harm's way to give the U.S. a public excuse to enter the war.
In times of conflict, there has been a long and deadly history of attacks on civilian infrastructure when that infrastructure is being used for—or even suspected of being used for—the transportation of war materiel.
That's why last week's report about United Airlines was so alarming.
The Intercept reported Sept. 9 that United was preparing to resume the use of passenger flights to ship military hardware bound for Israeli weapons manufacturers.
"On Wednesday evening, United is scheduled to transport five shipments of military cargo onboard United Airlines flight 90, a passenger route from Newark Liberty International Airport, in New Jersey, to Tel Aviv, Israel, a day after resuming the route and another direct flight to Israel, records show," reported Noah Hurowitz of The Intercept.
"All five shipments were destined for facilities operated by Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest defense contractor. One was addressed to its electro-optics division in Rehovot, another to Elbit Systems Land in Ramat Hasharon, and three to a facility in Karmiel. At least one was marked 'FMS,' indicating that it was connected to the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program," reported Live and Let's Fly.
Regardless of your position on any given military conflict and the parties concerned, history has shown that involving civilian infrastructure networks in the shipment of battle hardware puts everyone at risk.
Countries using military shipments as an excuse to attack commercial entities is not something from distant history.
For example, all summer Ukraine has been deploying explosive drones to cripple the distribution network of Wildberries, a Russian equivalent of Amazon. Although Wildberries is technically a civilian merchant, Ukraine has said that Wildberries sales are also supplying Russian troops and drone manufacturers, making the retailer's warehouses legitimate military targets in Ukraine's view.
It doesn't matter whether you think a war is justified. It doesn't matter whether a target has been officially determined to be legally valid. Historically, warring factions tend to shoot first and worry about legality later.
What matters is that attacks on civilian passengers do happen.
History shows that when passengers get mixed up in the transport of war supplies, passengers have died in large numbers.
Now that this latest news has gone public, passenger flights on United Airlines could realistically be targeted by rival military operatives who can use the report to claim their attacks were militarily justified.
Perhaps the report of United's actions isn't true. But that barely matters. History is littered with the destruction of passenger services that later proved not to be involved in war, from the sinking of the SS Athenia by Germany in 1939 to the downing of Iran Air Flight 655 by the United States in 1988.
If United Airlines is using passenger flights to supply combat materials to military contractors in Israel or any other place, passengers have the right to know so they may choose another airline for their own safety.
We reached out to United Airlines' media relations to obtain a comment about this deeply concerning report.
A representative from the airline, who did not identify themselves, told Frommer's, "We don’t have anything to share."