[thechat] Clarifications:

[Erika Meyer]

>1. military service does NOT presuppose a genocidal bent.

Agreed.

I just notice that those who advocate swift military action are 
rarely those standing in line to sign up for the front lines.

***

What really bothers me about Ron's comment about wiping out 
Palestinian vermin is how similar it sounds to US Colonel 
Chivington's famous quote "nits make lice" which he used to justify 
his destroying the children in the peaceful village at Sand Creek.

http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/four/whois.htm

Even though miliatry officials verbally condemn such acts, Chivington 
was never punished.  About 100 years later Lieutenant William Calley 
ordered a similar attack on the Vietnamese Village My Lai.  He was 
court marshalled and sentenced, but served less than five months, and 
now lives a "normal" life.

I'm sure both Chivington and Calley felt they had good reasons for 
massacring women and children.

Neither of them ever expressed any regret, and neither was really 
punished by their employers, the US military.  These things bother me.

We are all members of the human race, and all those children are our children.

I am outraged at many things.

Violence is not an appropriate response to any of them.

Erika
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