Tomothy McVeigh on Iraq

[kjkhoo at pop.jaring.my]

Chris Burford wrote:
>Is the quote below, alleged to be from a short essay by him in 1996, genuine?
>
>>Whether you wish to admit it or not, when you approve, morally, of 
>>the bombing of foreign targets by the U.S. military, you are 
>>approving of acts morally equivalent to the bombing in Oklahoma 
>>City.
>
>
>Did he have any political motivation, however twisted, or is this a 
>retrospective rationalisation?
>
>To the extent there is any truth in the proposition, it is an 
>argument for making the US responsible to some sort of world court 
>as rapidly as possible.

Does it matter whether it is genuine or, if genuine, what his 
intentions were? It would only matter if somehow one thought that if 
it was genuine, and it wasn't post-facto, that it somehow diminishes 
the horror of what he did. But it doesn't, wouldn't and shouldn't.

But it would still make it an apt comparison, not only in Iraq, but 
in any number of other places, including Vietnam where this happened 
continuously for a decade. Unfortunately, because it is attributed to 
McVeigh, it will simply reinforce the tendency to reject it -- now 
with the added 'reason' of it being the output of a mass murderer.

KJ Khoo