"Henry C.K. Liu" wrote:
> What you are saying is that collateral damage is not murder, and the pilot that
> delivers the bomb is not a murderer because he goes to church.
Perhaps, perhaps not. In simply laying down as a fact you are, I think, diverging from Mao's (and the CPC as a whole during its great days) subtlety in handling such issues. I have posted before on just this question as one that affects class analysis. I argued that those of working class background who became cops were thereby declassed. I argued that the case was a bit more complicated in regard to military personnel. Pilots of course are commissioned officers, which makes their case different from that of enlisted personnel. If I remember correctly, I also argued that the B-51 and the Stealth Bomber had no other function than mass murder, and that it was not unreasonable to treat their crews as murderers. On the other hand, the Vietnamese treated them as prisoners of war, though occasionally threatening to try them as war criminals. All in all, its a political issue rather than one which can be settled by simple (or even complex) moral judgments.
Carrol