Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2001 03:20:42 +0200 From: Piet Delport <siberiyan@mweb.co.za> To: Technical Information <tech_info@threespace.com> Cc: FreeBSD Chat <chat@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Helping victims of terror Message-ID: <20010922032042.A29963@athalon> In-Reply-To: <4.3.2.7.2.20010921173959.02994178@threespace.com> References: <4.3.2.7.2.20010921173959.02994178@threespace.com>
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On Fri, 21 Sep 2001 at 17:41:27 -0400, Technical Information wrote:
> I sent a few messages to FreeBSD Chat on this topic last week and just
> got them bounced back to me. (I know not why.) I felt passionately
> about this one in particular, so I decided to resend it. Sorry if it
> is no longer relevant to current discussions. --Chip Morton
>=20
>=20
> At 08:41 PM 9/15/2001, Piet Delport wrote:
[..]
> >> PS: How profound do you think is the guilt of the perpetrators of the
> >> September 11th atrocity?.
> >
> >Even less than the guilt of Joe Average American over America's own
> >atrocities, i imagine.
>=20
> I've been hearing a lot of statements like this that seem tossed out
> for no other reason that to point out that America has made military
> mistakes in the past. And to be blunt, it makes me bristle. To
> mention America's past mistakes in this context as if they're some
> sort of justification for anyone to commit these atrocities is utterly
> classless and a clear demonstration to me that you don't fully
> understand the magnitude of what happened.
My statement does indeed come across much more acidic than i intended; i
apologise for that, as it wasn't my intention at all, nor was i trying
to use America's mistakes as a justification of the recent events (very
far from it, in fact).
Terry's posting claimed at length that the American nation was very
sorry about its mistakes, whereas the terrorists probably don't feel any
remorse at all (unless i completely misinterpret his closing sentence).
I was only trying to point out that the Americans don't feel even
remotely as soul-struck with guilt as Terry painted them[1], and
(obviously) the terrorists feel even less guilt.
In fact, arguing merit on the basis of how much guilt one expresses is
pointless to begin with IMHO. Once you're involved in a war it's a
matter of Us versus Them; you destroy them before they destroy you.
Does this make one's actions right or justifiable? No. Does it make
them avoidable, and worthy of guilt? No. You do what you have to do.
> Too many people around the world have expressed support for the U.S.
> position on this event for me to believe that we're all wrong.
Actually, i don't think you're wrong at all to want Bin Laden's group
(or whoever is responsible) eliminated. The WTC disaster was
inexcusable, and i agree emphatically that the organsation responsible
for it should be utterly destroyed, as they're a threat to the human
race as a whole.
Ideally, this should be done as surgically as possible, but
unfortunately a lot of people all over the world seem to be calling out
for another big, messy war, and i believe that is *not* the way to go
about it. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind, as Ghandi
said.
With all that said, i'd like to add that despite my admittedly
trite-sounding opinion on how America should try to handle this, i
realise that the situation is much more messy and complex than that in
reality. I'd hate to have to make the decisions that the American
leaders are currently having to make, and my deepest respect will go to
them if they can actually figure out how to defuse the current
situation, without more needless bloodshed.
[1] And why should they? It's done and over with, and besides, America
has made more amends than anyone could rightly expect them to, as
you and others have pointed out.
--=20
Piet Delport <siberiyan@mweb.co.za>
Today's subliminal thought is:
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