John Clark wrote:
>
> Miriam English <miriam@werple.net.au> Wrote:
>
> > Are you really angry with him because he is indignant not only about the
> > slaughter of the people in the WTC but also other people too?
>
> Yes. The factory in Sudan was blown up late at night to minimize casualties.
> It was blown up because it was believed to be manufacturing biological weapons.
> Now it is possible they were wrong about that, perhaps the murderous power
> hungry thugs who run Sudan decided to build a baby food factory instead,
> perhaps they decided to ring the baby food factory with barbed wire, security
> check points, and anti aircraft guns just for the hell of it. But to put the blowing
> up of this place in even the same ethical universe as crashing two civilian
> airliners into the World Trade Center is yet another example of poor
> Mr.Chomsky's moral tone deafness handicap.
There was no proof that the plant was manufacturing nerve gas
and so on beyond a precursor chemical commonly used in many
things including pesticides being found in the soil near the
plant. This chemical is not listed on any recognized
international restrictions on possible biological or gas weapon
production. The claim they were making never gas was largely
discredited. The plant did manufacture 50% of the countries
basic pharmaceuticals. We blew hell out of part of their
pharmaceutical industry. We blew up parts of Sudan and
Afghainstan supposedly in response to the East Africa bombings.
We launched missles against the territory and facilities of
countries we were not at war with. If such a thing was done
against US targets or over US soil we would rightly consider it
an act of war. And yet we talk about how humane we were to do
it in the middle of the night? By current international
conventions we had no right to do this at all. We ultimately
did it because we could get away with it and perhaps because it
took some attentions of Clinton's doemstic woes and because it
was "doing something".
In short we were major international bullies in this incident.
We blew up a civilian target in the middle of a country's
sovereign territory doing a great deal of harm to part of their
economy for largely domestic political reasons and perhaps to
give notice that we could "reach out and touch someone" whenever
we wish regardless of relevant international law and the
niceties of diplomacy.
There were none of the bizarre contrivances listed above. The
factory was thrown open to international examination.
An investigation was called for in the UN and was backed by the
22-nation Arab League. It was blocked by the US and Britain.
- samantha
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:12 MDT