Milutin writes:
>
> >I honestly didn't know that the Canadian Air Force was bombing Iraq.
>
> Nor did they bomb Chechenya.
> Martin, I have a feeling you are now trying to change your stance, hoping we
> won't notice.

No, I had written that your country is not currently bombing anybody.
You then wrote back (I'm parphrasing) HELLO!  They are bombing Iraq!
Not right now, maybe but..., etc.  What I said was clear.  I said your
country is NOT currently bombing anybody.  What you said based on what
I said was equally clear.  You said Canada is currently bombing Iraq.
If that is true, then I apologize.  I did not know that Canada is
bombing Iraq.  Is Canada bombing Iraq?

> Your point was that I said I protested the NATO actions because I
> believed bombing was amoral.  And that because I didn't mention
> anything here about the bombing of Chechenya, therefore proved I had
> a double standard on the morality of bombing.

No, I said you have the same double standard as the governments you
denigrate, namely, that you protest when it suits you to protest.  The
US protests the actions of some other government, when it suits the US
to do so.  You protest the actions of a government when it suits you
to do so.  It does not suit you to protest the actions of Russia
against Chechnya.  You say that doesn't mean you don't care about
Chechens.  Fine.  You care about Chechens.  You still have a double
standard.  If the US had not spoken up about Indonesian attrocities in
East Timor, you would have accused the US of having a double standard.
Similar accusations have been made about the US on this list, and
rightly so.  I'm saying you have the same double standard.  You
protest when it suits you to protest.  Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, John
Howard and 3J Chrétien all care just as much about people as you do.
In fact, don't they care a lot more than you?  They cared enough to go
through all the blood, sweat, and tears to become head of state of
their respective nations.  Doesn't that activism make you look like a
couch potato?  Yes, it does.  You disagree with their activism.
Theirs is bad.  Yours is good.

> Now you are adding the requirement of Canadian planes being involved
> in the bombing for me to care, and, if that were true, then I don't
> have a double standard(because Canadian planes aren't bombing
> Chechenya) and your entire theory about swiss cheese is thrown out
> the window once again.

I added *no* requirement.  *You* implied directly that Canada is
bombing Iraq.

martin