Hi-jack fall-out

Nathan Newman nathan at newman.org
Wed Sep 12 04:30:25 PDT 2001



>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Ken Hanly" <khanly at mb.sympatico.ca>
>I do believe that the American people have collective responsibility for
the
>harms perpetuated in their name, but that is a very different thing from
>recognizing the barbarism involved in the mass slaughter that occurred
>today. I am not a pacifist or even against all "terrorism" in the sense
>that proportional targetted response against civilians may be justified on
>occasion where no other outlets for resistance are possible. But this kind
>of disproportionate mass murder warrants little response that will lead to
>any questioning of the US's role.

-Disproportionate mass murder is exactly what the U.S. government -specializes in, both through its own actions (e.g., economic -sanctions of Iraq) and its proxies (consult, for instance, William -Blum on this topic). Over many decades, the U.S. government has funded, trained, and/or equipped *untold numbers* of soldiers, mercenaries, and/or paramilitary death squads in the USA, Asia, Africa, Latin America, & the Middle East.

Again the equivalence between every act of the US government and the culpability of innocent civilians. And proportion is not just a question of comparing body counts (my point on eye for an eye) but of effectiveness. Murder in war is only justified to the extent it will end greater murder and promote justice. The futility of this act in that regard removes any proportion from the act.

How does it work? We count every person killed in the world by the US, subtract our casualties in that time, and terrorists have a free "kill every Yankee they want" card until the global quota to even things up is reached?

I guess this is why so many people on this list found the mass murder of Kosovars acceptable. They were put in the "Yankee" column, so the Serbs were just using up the quota.

On the other hand, I find the mass murder of East Timorese, Palestinians, Iraqis, Kosovars, and residents of the financial district all equally appalling. None justify the other and only proportionate response by anyone to end death and misery is ever justified.

Anything else is a war crime.

-- Nathan Newman



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