From: Hal Finney (hal@finney.org)
Date: Mon Jun 16 2003 - 15:57:00 MDT
Harvey wrote:
> It is true that the exact phrase "war crimes" was not used in the incidents
> I complained about. Try looking for people being accused of supporting
> communism, terrorism, Saddam, bin Laden, being a traitor, or giving aid and
> comfort to the enemy. These are the phrases you will find. Also look
> specifically in the threads about the Iraq war. This is where these
> accusations are being made. I can't imagine that you can read these threads
> without seeing what I am talking about. Even if you think I am
> exaggerating, you should at least locate the specific incidents in questions
> and review them before you decide that they didn't happen.
I agree that many harsh words and exaggerated characterizations have been
made by all concerned in these debates. No one person or one side has
a monopoly on these errors.
War crimes mean more than the things you list above. See
http://www.survivorsrightsinternational.org/definitions/war_crimes.mv
for a page defining war crimes. Generally they refer to violations of
the Geneva conventions. War crimes are acts of violence. No posting
to a mailing list can be a war crime. And no one has claimed otherwise;
no one has accused any poster to the Extropians lists of war crimes.
Perhaps you are just using the phrase "war crimes" as a shorthand for the
various harsh and unfair accusations you list. Unfortunately this has
the effect of further polarizing the debate as it implies that people
have accused other Extropians of commiting heinous acts tantamount to
executing prisoners of war or engaging in torture and mutilation.
I encourage all parties to tone down the rhetoric and avoid making
stronger claims about the actions of others than are justified by
the facts.
Hal
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