Samir Amin on Islam

Reed Tryte dttdhmtp at yahoo.com
Tue Dec 3 19:40:06 PST 2002


Hitchens:


>>>>"I hate and despise Hezbollah and Palestinian
>>>>suicide-murderers, as
>>>>they ought to be called, but
>>>>they'd have to work day and night for years
>>>>to equal the total of
>>>>civilians killed in Lebanon alone,
>>>>or by Sharon alone. Lebanese and Palestinian
>>>>irregulars are, by the
>>>>way, entitled by international
>>>>law to resist foreign occupation that has been
>>>>internationally
>>>>condemned. Fact..."

Brad:


>>>By killing nurses? If one is going to talk about
>>>international law, one should also talk about
>>>jus in bello...

Reed:


>>Brad, are you talking about Bonnie Penner? If so, is
>>there some indication that she was killed by
>>Hezbollah?
>>
>>In any case, I don't understand the point you're
>>making. Do you mean the killing of Bonnie Penner
>>was an equivalent violation of international law to
>>Israel's occupation of Lebanon and killing of 20,000
>>civilians? Would you have said the same thing if a
>>nurse from Iraq's closest ally had been killed in
>>Kuwait during the Iraqi occupation? "If one is going
>>to talk about international law regarding the Iraqi
>>invasion, one should also talk about jus in
>>bello..."

Brad:


>Your argument seems to have the structure,
>"X killed Y, so it is OK
>for Z to kill W."
>
>One *can* condemn both the Israeli invasion of
>Lebanon and the
>killing of Bonnie Penner. I have. And I do.

Reed:

I wasn't making an argument. I was just pointing out that your comment seemed like a non-sequitur. Hitchens said Hamas and Hezbollah have the right to resist under international law. Your only comment was, well, do they have the right to kill nurses? Indicating that Hezbollah had killed Bonnie Penner. Except, as far as I know, nobody knows who killed her.

This fact, and the fact that that was your only comment, seemed strange. If Hitchens said that the ANC had the right to resist apartheid, would your only response be, "By killing Amy Biehl?"

Also, it's worth pointing out that Hitchens in fact had condemned Hezbollah terrorism, just one sentence before.

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