alister air writes:
> 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.

He lives in Canada.  Is Canada bombing 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.

Nor do I.  The Serb army was killing ethnic Albanians.  The KLA was
killing Serbs.  If any of these cases deserves protest, they all do.

> >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?

I don't fail to do anything about it.  I chose not to.

> >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.

Not at all.  Protesting against each case as it comes up is like
closing the gate after the horse has bolted.  The protests against the
NATO bombing did not stop the NATO bombing.  Protesting the Russian
bombing would not stop the Russian bombing.  Protesting in this way is
a waste of time and resources.  The structure has already taken it
into account and is prepared to deal with it.  The way to stop
bombings is to prevent the situations that lead to bombing.  That
requires changing the rules at the foundational level.

> Well, I guess you can't be accused of having double-standards if you
> don't have any at all.

That's true, but I do have standards.

martin