[lbo-talk] Norman Geras on the morality of the just war.

Charles Brown cbrown at michiganlegal.org
Wed Apr 28 11:01:12 PDT 2004


From: Stephen E Philion

liberal 'marxist' norm geras: George Galloway denies any distinction between war and what some of us call terrorism, other than that one is ordered 'by men in suits', the other 'by men in sandals'. And so blowing up a bus full of schoolchildren isn't terrorism, it's just 'a grisly aspect' of revolutionary insurgency.

--yet Galloway is correct, after all Geras doesn't call dropping bombs on civilians (by accident of course it's always by accident) 'terrorism'...so what gives? Is Geras saying that the schoolchildren were targets btw? he must have some pretty good intelligence agents on the ground in Iraq these days...

steve

^^^^^

CB: Yea, clearly U.S. bombadiers, artillery personnel, Marines, etc. are the Mega-Terrorists in the world today, killing more civilians than the one's the U.S. calls terrorists. They don't even hide it with "Shock and Awe" and the like. A killer wearing a uniform is a terrorist too. The fact that the people fighting the U.S. have less powerful weapons makes them less terroristic. The fact that U.S. uniformed terrorists kill more efficiently makes them more terroristic. It doesn't exonerate them of being terrorists !

Who is naïve enough to believe that the U.S. military doesn't kill civilians on purpose ? If you start launching missiles into cities it is certain you will kill civilians. You are presumed to intend the necessary and inevitable consequences of your action ( Mr. Justice Powell). It's no excuse that you were trying to hit a tyrant. But who doubts that some Yankee Marines murder Iraqi civilians on purpose in the course of these events ?

Why is there a debate on a left list about whether the U.S. military is terroristic, and more terroristic than the relatively pintsized terrorists ?

War _is_ the ultimate terrorism ! Why does this have to be explained ?



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