> PS: I know you were only talking about American casualties, but that
> seems a rather narrow measure of the relative cruelties of the
> Democrats and Republicans. If the Republicans are equally indifferent
> to the deaths of Americans as they are to the deaths of others, then
> I fail to see how that makes them any worse than the Democrats.
No, my emphasis on American casualties was due to Chuck's argument which dealt with who's gonna be a hurtin' in American society, hence his: "the great white blob of the middle class haven't begun to pay for installing GW in power..."
But actually, I DID try to reflect on the hurtin' being dealt out to non-Americans: "And it isn't going to be mainly the 'great white blob of the middle class' that is going to feel (feeling) the hurt from Bush's policy, it is immigrants...ethnic minorities...West Asia and global instability from Bush's cadre of apocolyptic disciples attempting to immanentize the Eschaton."
Bill Bartlett:
>This is perhaps because of the Republicans cunning secret dismantling
>of the universal health care system implemented by the previous
>Democrat administration? Or do you put it down to the Republican's
>instant (retrospective) rollback of the welfare safety net set up by
>the Clinton administration? You seem to be suggesting that the
>political right is so much worse than those ever so slightly to the
>left of them. From my perspective it appears the Republicans are
>simply less clever.
No, that was not the point at all. The facts are that less educated and lower class individuals are more likely to serve in the U.S. military and some minorities (African Americans especially) make up a larger portion of the armed forces than their portion in the population. Plus, if you look here: http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/almanac/almanac/people/minorities.html you will see that minorities make up a larger portion of the enlisted, which it is my guess, see more combat than the officers, which skews the situation even more.
Maybe Chuck is correct, maybe the 'great white blob of the middle class' needs a whuppin' and the only way to do it is for a whole lot more of other people (and animals and trees), to get thrown through the grinder along with them.
To hurt the specific constituency Chuck is focusing on a little, you need to hurt many others a lot.
But if that is the case, let's be open and honest what we are advocating...
BTW... I was never a big fan of Rabin's clever occupation by other means Oslo Accords, but right now, I dream nostalgic for that over Sharon and company's stupidity we live/die through at the moment...And I didn't vote for Mitzna (voted Hadash), but I have the ability to debate with myself whether I made the right strategic choice or not...depends on my mood at the moment.
Bryan