On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 10:19:01 -0400, Brian Siano <siano at mail.med.upenn.edu> wrote:
> ...This was one of the better points Christopher Hitchens raised against
the antiwar movement. Its concern for the Kurds seemed to stop with
Saddam's having used poison gas against them...
On the last big anti-war march in S.F. as thousands of us were a few blocks away from starting to ascend one of our famous hills, seeing a fellow protestor with two large signs with photos of the victims of the gassing of the 5,000 Kurds in Halabja, I stopped to chat with the fellow and ask if there had been a reaction and what kind. Many had not heard of Halabja and what happened there, and almost all had said, initially, that the photos must be Bush atrocities. No one who had approached was even well (disinformed) enough to mention the NYT op-ed by Stephen Pelletaire attempting to hand off responsibility to the Iranians. Shades of the denial over Racek.
As a kid, in New Jersey, while on the way back from the swimming pool, the Frida Payne top 40 hit, "Bring The Boys Home, " came on the radio. The Mom of one of my friends, angrily switched the station, saying she was sick of the song. As there had been a, "Support Lt. Calley, " billboard a few miles before, I brought up the My Lai massacre. Didn't get to go swimming with that kid again. Heh.
-- Michael Pugliese