[FWD: Re: Leo Casey on moral calculus]

[Stephen E Philion]

You design a bizarre argument here Leo. In fact, the  interesting thing
about Chomsky's  argument is that I could conceivably agree with you that
the numbers of people killed in WTC/P was greater than that seen in the
Sudan Pharmaceutical factory and that changes nothing in terms of the
*substance* of Chomsky's argument, namely that these guys are amateurs
compared to the CIA, military planners, etc. In one ironic sense he is
wrong, of course, since the CIA was intimately involved in the sustaining
of right-wing Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan...so indeed, they
have perhaps outdone 'us' if you are correct in your reprimands of
Chomsky. Of course I don't remember ADA  calls for President Reagan to not
support such elements in Afghanistan back when, after all, how could he
have known, eh?

Steve

Stephen Philion
Lecturer/PhD Candidate
Department of Sociology
2424 Maile Way
Social Sciences Bldg. # 247
Honolulu, HI 96822

On Mon, 17 Sep 2001 leocasey at aol.com wrote:


> ------ Start of Forwarded Message ------
> From: Con1453 at aol.com
> Sent: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 14:24:15 EDT
> To: asdnet at igc.topica.com
> Subject: Re: [ASDnet] Leo Casey on moral calculus
>
>
> In a message dated 9/16/01 1:54:47 PM, lipowg at sprintmail.com writes:
>
> << If that bombing really resulted in the death
> of ten thousand Sudanese and Iraqi civilians, due to lack of medical
> supplies, then the moral calculus does not seem particularly out of
> balance... >>
>
> The bombing in the Sudan was not designed to kill 10,000 civilians.  It
> was held at night precisely in order to try to kill no one.  In fact it
> killed one.
>
> Neither were the crashes on the WTC designed to kill 10,000 -- they were
> "designed" to kill 50,000 people -- and were conducted at the time they
> were in order to kill 50,000 people.  It is a disappoinment to those who
> conducted them that they killed "only" 5,000.
>
> At a time when Le Monde (LE MONDE!)  is writing that "we are all
> Americans" it is nice to know that we have Americans with such fine
> moral thermometers.
>
> I think it is safe to say, unfortunately for these people, that 99 % of
> the American people lack their fine moral sensibility.
>
> You can count me among the 99%. Cling to your sensibility, folks, it's
> all you will have for a while.
>
> Jim Chapin
>
>
> ------ End of Forwarded Message ------
>
>