[thechat] war phase 2

[Erika Meyer]

Terry wrote:

>--- Erika Meyer <emeyer at lclark.edu> wrote:
>
>>  It starts with an averting of the eyes when the
>>  atrocities occur.
>>
>I think we all agree that 9/11 was an atrocity. I'm
>curious, Erika, what you think a proper response to
>the events of that day would be.

A proper response would be a legal response.

Because the WTC acts were considered an attack on the United States, 
the counterattack on Afghanistan was not criticized by the UN or 
world community, or at least that is what it appears to me.

Or perhaps the counterattack was not criticized because everyone is 
intimated by the United States and everyone knew criticism would be 
fruitless... and perhaps seen in poor taste and anti-US.

I think that I suggested various ideas for alternative responses to 
the attacks after they occurred and before the war against 
Afghanistan.  Not that there was a whole lot of lag-time to do that 
kind of thinking.  And right now, it's a moot issue.

To me it looks like we have taken life to pay for life, even though 
no amount of additional killing is going to bring anyone's mommy or 
daddy back.

Change should have occurred in Afghanistan (and elsewhere) long ago. 
There is injustice all over the world.  If the US is going to care 
about the world, it had better establish a set of standards that are 
equally applied...  How long are we going to ignore various health 
and political crises in Africa?  Until another airplane falls?  And 
then we'll bomb someone else?

How about the homeless in our streets?  The people in our prisons? 
Are we going to ignore them until they riot?

Not everyone has the capacity to bomb the crap out of their enemies. 
Only a few enjoy that ability.  What happens, for example, a 
government decides to massacre large numbers of it's own people?  Who 
do we bomb, who do we arm, and how do we decide ?

(In the past, we've been known to arm the killers so they can kill some more.)

What about when an irresponsible and reckless industry causes the 
deaths of thousands of people?  Who do we bomb then?

Maybe this is a world where only America, and the friends of 
America... those who look and behave like us..., are privy to justice.

It may be that there is simply no forum for international justice 
anymore (if there ever was) and that it is a world of shifting 
alliances and "each nation for itself."

Perhaps after enough people die, human life will begin to have value again.

Erika


>From the tone of what
>you've said since military action began, it seems to
>me that you want to avert your eyes from "Ground Zero"
>and the Pentagon and that piece of farmland in
>Pennsylvania.
>
>There are children in about 60 countries right now who
>won't see Mommy or Daddy again because Mohammed Atta
>et al decided it was a good day to die and that they
>were going to take a few thousand people with them.
>There are more Mohammed Attas out there who are
>willing
>to harm you and your daughter and me and my wife and
>kids and grandchild.
>
>So, what is a fitting response for the US and the
>other
>60 or so countries who suffered, not collateral damage
>(inadvertant, unintended, undesired) but the
>deliberate
>murder of civilians?
>
>Not trolling, discussing.
>
>Terry

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