[lbo-talk] genocide, and" ordinary" murder

Charles Brown cbrown at michiganlegal.org
Tue Apr 5 11:35:15 PDT 2005


Genocide, as defined in the UN Convention against Genocide, is actually relatively precise compared to a lot of terms that get tossed around, quite the contrary of the relative indefiniteness that frank sketches out.

With respect to the below, first it should be determined whether the person making the murderous pronouncements was, under the UN definition, involved in genocidal killings or other acts ( see UN provision). Then , and only then, is the murderous intent, as evinced by the words, the mental element of a genocide.

Plain old, non-genocidal murder is a crime too, by the way.

An importance of the anti-genocide law is exactly that it helps us make more precise our hisorical review of _political_ crimes. The world's revelations forced by dread of the Nazis has implications beyond the Nazis, implications in critique of Euroimperialism.

The UN companion law is to prohibit Crimes Against Peace, i.e. committing War ! General bellicose and hateful statements might accompany acts that violate this law.

Charles

^^^^

frank scott

quite apart form any scholarship or lack of it on churchill's part, that spirit of hateful reduction of the enemy is part and parcel of the warrior mindset, in any conflict...the opposition is monstrous, evil, and unfit to live...and it is not a legend at all, since i remember it clearly from my childhood during the second world war, when i heard, and saw the words, "the only good jap is a dead jap" and feel certain the same was said about germans... though i have no distinct memory of that, but recall a quote from the older churchill, the murderous winston, that they (germans) should all be wiped from the face of the earth ( only a slight paraphrase, and only one of many bloody hateful utterances from that western hero about the german "race")

that kind of verbal murder is regular speech, engaged in, but learned, by not only the warriors but the population most brain bludgeoned by propaganda about the enemy...if that is evidence of genocide, that overused word has become even more useless...

we might as well say schiavo was a victim of genocide, which is probably what many believe...

fs



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