From: dzk@cs.brown.edu (Danny Keren)
Subject: Re: Alan Dershowitz on Bosnia
Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1992 19:28:13 GMT

aaldoubo@copper.denver.colorado.edu (Anisa Alnoor Aldoubosh) writes:
#dzk@cs.brown.edu (Danny Keren) writes:

##I tend to agree with Dershowitz. What is happening in Bosnia today

#Isn't that the reason why Arf calls you a Chutzpahnazi?  :-)

You want me to explain how the Schimidling works?

#Maybe Alan is just focusing too much on one side to be able to clearly
#see what the 'conflict' is really about, and how the daily massacres
#and starvation of this certain religious minority is very similar to
#the crimes and atrocities of Nazi Germany.

They are not similar in magnitude, not by a long shot (and I sincerely
hope they will not become similar).

#We shouldn't compare on the same level, but we should not reduce
#the severity of it either because it is not at the same level.

Who was reducing the severity of it?

#I agree with Arf's comments on the situation.  Aside from your own personal
#feelings about him, he makes a good point:

No, he doesn't.

##Note the nothing will or should.  He is telling us that, no matter how 
##terrible an atrocity is, we (for political reasons) should never draw the 
##comparison.   

And that is, of course, a BLOODY LIE, typical of Schmidling. If 
Dershowitz would say, for instance, "even if millions of people
are shot or gassed to death in Bosnia, this would not be comparable
to the Holocaust" that would make him a filthy racist and I would
be the first to condemmn him. But all he said is that the murder
of thousands is not comparable to the murder of millions, and that
such comparisons rob the meaning of what the Holcoaust was and abuse
the meaning of it. And when words lose meaning, we are not in a 
good situation. Read 1984 and/or Orwell's "Politics and the English
Language".

#I think Arf is measuring the double-standards that Dershowitz uses, in
#this paragraph.  It is as though Dershowitz is saying that because nothing
#can be compared to the Holocaust 

NO NO NO. Dershowitz didn't say that *nothing* cannot be compared
to the Holocaust. He said that what is happening in Bosnia today
cannot be compared to the Holocaust. Big difference.

I always found the statement "it is not the number of the victims
that counts when comparing atrocities" idiotic and inhuman. No matter
it is made so often by Hitler apologists. Of course the number
counts. Of course killing thousands, horrible as it is, is not
comparable to killing millions. Using such analogies, one could
claim that because of the Mai-Lai massacare US forces undertook
in Vietnam (400 women, children and old people killed in one day
for no reason at all), the US is comparable to Nazi Germany. One
can claim that Iraq, Jordan, Syria, France, Britain - you name it -
are comparable to Nazi Germany. 

#(and even if it is not acceptable treatment
#of other human beings), we should focus more on the injustices of the
#Holocaust instead of current autrocities, like Bosnia.

He never said nor implied that. I find your interpretation of his
position truly horrible. Please explain where he said the above.

-Danny Keren.