From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Tue Jan 07 2003 - 14:25:57 MST
> (Dehede011@aol.com <Dehede011@aol.com>):
> In a message dated 1/7/2003 1:13:54 PM Central Standard Time,
> thespike@earthlink.net writes: in this century the United States probably
> murdered about 583,000 people... conceivable even as many as 1,641,000 all
> told. Virtually all of these were foreigners killed during foreign wars. >
>
> Damien,
> When you say we murdered these people are you saying we sent something
> like death squads out to actually murder these people or are you referring to
> people killed in defensive wars or wars to aid friends that were defending
> themselves? If you are referring to offensive wars to gain land please
> indicate the land gained and the actual number of people killed to obtain
> that land.
> Ron h.
False dichotomy: force is not used only to either steal land or protect
land. It can also be, and often is, used to support one regime over a
competing one within a land, where there is no clear way to determine
which regime is "legitimate".
If a repressive government is in power in a country, and asks for our
help to suppress a competing faction, then we are engaging in offensive
use of force against the people of that country, even if it can be
justified in international-law-speak as "defense".
When most American foreign policy was established, the only actors
with the wherewithal to pose a real threat to us were governments,
and so it was in our interest to support those foreign governments
that were friendly to us, regardless of what was right or wrong, or
what was in the interests of the people of those lands. But times
have changed. Small groups of people can now do serious damage, and
it is important now that our foreign policy deal with the /people/
of other lands with integrity and fairness, even if that means
pissing off the repressive-but-friendly-to-US-interests government
they may live under.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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