Re: Landmines (was Re: US/Foreign AID)

From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Mon Dec 24 2001 - 16:54:56 MST


Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
>
> > > As the closest thing to an expert on landmine warfare on this list (in all
> > > likelihood at least), the above paragraph is so full of invalid assumptions
> > > that it can effectively be discarded. Very few people who have opinions on
> > > this topic know anything about the doctrine, technology, and deployment of
> > > landmines in warfare. To try to paint the US as a bad guy on the topic of
> > > landmines suggests great ignorance of some fundamental history and facts on
> > > this subject.
> >
> > Nor do I care to. Blowing body parts off of civilians for
> > decades after original deployment can not be excused by any
> > amount of "expertise".
> > ...
> > How so when the go bang for many many years afterwards and
> > against people who you then have nearly offensive of defensive
> > grievances with?
>
> Samantha, you do yourself no service by totally ignoring the facts
> presented by well-informed individuals to continue your emotional
> screeds. Even those of us who have sympathy for your points of view
> find it harder to take you seriously when you evince such a lack of
> basic personal and intellectual integrity. There are a lot of
> warmongers in the world, and it is good to have an opposing voice,
> but if that opposing voice willingly sacrifices its own credibility
> it has done more harm for its cause than good.
>

Granted and I regretted some of the harshness of my stance as
soon as I hit the <send> button. However, the issue of
landmines and the lack of support for cleaning up our (US) mess
from past actions, is far more than an "emotional screed".

Excuse me, but getting emotional about an issue of human beings
including large number of children being blown to bits by the
results of conflicts long past is in my mind a little
excusable. It certainly DOES NOT justify impugning my personal
or intellectual integrity. You do yourself no good in the call
for reason by practicing such ill-considered and unjustified
attacks. Please take a moment to attend to the beam in your own
eye.

- samantha



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