Let’s just consider the second half of the 20^th -c. The bombing of North Korea can stand as our test for the very worst! (If you don’t know just how unimaginably savage that bombing was, go back to school.) Then consider what might appear a minor affair: the subversion of Iranian democracy along with first the passive approval then vigorous support of the theft of the land of a whole nation (Palestine). Those two acts (and done might add the maintenance of the tyrannical Saudi Arabian regime) have led to uncounted and uncountable deaths and human misery, a record still continuing. Then we have the overthrow of Arbaenz, which led rather directly to the near genocidal reign of Rios Montt. Are you counting? Some years ago a poster to Pen-L estimated a minimum of 20 million deaths from IMF austerity programs. That is probably a considerable underestimation. The Vietnam War probably killed between 1 and 2 million as a beginning buat the toll is probably over 3 million and counting. That is ignoring the rtwisted bodies and permanent destruction of much land. (“Not since the Romans salted the earth” was one description, a mild one, of that war.) The massacres in Cambodia would neer have occurred but for the U.S. invasion of Indo-China.Then of couerse the years of bombing and sanctions on Iraq. The deliberate instigation of civil war in Afghanistan. And the murder of Lumumba: like the overthrow of Mossedgh, was only the bginning of decades of horror for that and neighboring nations. The vigorous support offered by the U.S. to the apartheid regime of South Africa.
I am only hitting the high points; the death trail left by the U.S. is unending. That even without counting the horrors committed by its allies.
And one somewhat twisted individual, driven to a frenzy by the unending war on his people, succees in destroying two or three buildings and killing a few thousand.
And you dare to speak of “crimesd against humanity.” Phghfw the stench rises to the hefavens.
Carrol
-On 5/5/2011 4:07 PM, Dissenting Wren wrote: Do any of us really disagree here?
The evidence that bin Laden is guilty of crimes against humanity is strong. The legality of sending in a team of SEALs to capture him in Pakistan is questionable. On the one hand, the normal course of action would be extradition. On the other hand, there is good evidence that Pakistan was giving him safe harbor.
Clearly, though, killing him once he was in custody was an act of murder, plain and simple. The strong evidence against him means he should have been tried, probably by the ICCJ. Since it looks like the team went in with an order to kill him, that means that Barack Obama and any number of other high U.S. officials are likely guilty of serious crimes both domestic and international.
But there should be no surprise that there's little impetus to mourn his death, by those on the left or those not. The man was a piece of human waste and the world is better off without him. I don't mourn the lynching of Mussolini either, even though the fascist should have been tried rather than murdered.
----- Original Message ---- From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Thu, May 5, 2011 3:37:54 PM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Fidel: El asesinato de Bin Laden/The assassination of Bin Laden
On May 5, 2011, at 4:32 PM, CallMe Ishmael wrote:
Did those guys orchestrate an attack on the U.S.?
Did Osama? KSM is routinely referred to as the "mastermind" of 9/11, not OBL, who as far as I understand it was more the funder and figurehead.
Look, the guy was of a totally different order from a leader the U.S. had shot for promoting land reform or something.
Doug ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
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