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Reply To: | The philosophy, work & influences of Noam Chomsky |
Date: | Thu, 30 Sep 1999 10:44:30 +1000 |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
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At 16:22 29/09/99 +0200, Martin William Smith wrote:
>Of course you can. That's just a cop out. A typical, fair weather
>activist copout. Your government isn't bombing at the moment.
Actually the US government *is* bombing at the moment, in Iraq.
>You have to learn not to lead with your chin. You just proved
>everything I have said.
While perhaps not 'everything' you said, his comment was ...
illuminating. The Chechens have been fighting a separatist war against
Russia in much the same way as the Tamils in Sri Lanka. When the
mostly-Sinhalese Sri Lankan army kill Tamil civilians, this is an atrocity
in the same way as when the mostly-Javanese Indonesia army kill East
Timorese civilians, and in the same way as when the Russian army kill
Chechen civilians.
I draw no distinction between atrocities in this respect, and fail to see
how anyone could.
>I have the same concern for Chechens that I do for everyone else who
>is being bombed. I haven't maked anything. I haven't protested the
>bombing of Chechenya. I didn't protest the bombing of Yugoslavia
>either.
While Mulutin's comment was illuminating, so is yours, Martin. You have
the same concern for people who go and get themselves bombed, yet you fail
to do anything about it?
>And I say that most activists are dishonest.
So this is your cop-out. Most activists are dishonest, so that alleviates
the necessity to act when faced with war-crimes, or crimes against humanity.
Well, I guess you can't be accused of having double-standards if you don't
have any at all.
Alister
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