From: sahle@csgrad.cs.vt.edu (Eskinder Sahle)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.arabic
Subject: Re: About the explosion
Date: 9 Apr 92 04:19:56 GMT
Organization: VPI&SU Computer Science Department, Blacksburg, VA

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NOTE: The author of this post is Ahmed Bouzid and NOT Eskinder Sahle
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In article <15066@optima.cs.arizona.edu> bakken@cs.arizona.edu (Dave Bakken) writes:
>In article <1992Apr6.151301.14328@en.ecn.purdue.edu> souissi@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Ridha Souissi) writes:
>
>>Bush and company should be tried for war crimes because of the
>>"collateral" damage which resulted in the death of thousands
>>of Iraqi  civilians with his military's "surgical" bombing.

[Text Deleted]

>Anyone who thinks that the US would deliberately bomb civilians
>(like here or in the accidental downing of the Iranian airliner
>a while back) is an ignorant fool (I used those words advisedly)
>and is showing utter contempt and ignorance of the American people.

The US used way much more power than necessary--and in fact, I believe
now, more than ever before, that the US had no right to drop even a
single bomb.  The US used the massive force it did for one thing,
and one thing only: to show the rest of the world how mighty and
invincible it is--and, on top of that, that it is ready to use its
might should any fool dare bar its way.  The Gulf
War afforded the US a golden opportunity at a crucial junction 
in time when the old world dichotomy of East vs. West was rapidly
disintegrating, an opportunity to prove that it is the present
untouchable master of the world.  And such are the ways of the mighty:
didn't the United States do the exact same thing when it dropped 
the Atomic Bombs over a Japan that, as it has turned out after all, was
on its way to capitulating anyway?  The Atomic Bombs, history has now
shown, were not necessary to stop the war.  But they were necessary
for another thing: to show the other nuclear power in the world
that the US not only had the bombs, but that it was ready to
use them.   The callousness of the US in the Gulf War is a fact, Dave.
Little concern was shown for civilian life: the US was gripped in a fit
of madness, it became blind--and, Dave, to be blunt with you, the
American people, the average Joe, behaved even more despicably than
your military: you sat and watched, without feeling, absorbing what you
were fed, incapable of imagining (since no pictures were given you--and
without pictures, Dave, how on earth can anything be real!) for yourself
the horror your own money was inflicting on innocents--read that carefully, 
Dave--INNOCENTS.  Like fools, all of you Americans repeated--"well, we
don't like Wars, but--we will stand behind our troops, lest we again
err and call those who kill assassins and those who rob thieves."  Yes,
Dave, what a fine display of the principles that you hold sacred to 
you heart was your conduct during the War.   The American people deserve
nothing--absolutely nothing but contempt for how they behaved during the
War.  While people were being massacred, what did your fine nation 
do, Dave: you waved your yellow ribbons.

>It takes the most paranoid of conspiracy theorists to believe
>that only a handful of Americans could know about such plans or
>policies (and that they could be assured to be placed in the right
>jobs by the conspirators).  And it shows ignorance of Americans to
>think that American officers would tolerate it, and our adversarial
>press (adversarial to the military, for the most part) would not find
>out.  And if this did happen people *would* be tried.   And the
>outrage from the American people would be very great.

>Dave Bakken                               Internet: bakken@cs.arizona.edu

The matter is more sinister than that, Dave.  There was no conspiracy:
none whatsoever.  There was only a shedding of principles, a madness en
mass, and a total numbing of a nation's sense of humanity towards fellow 
human beings, that's all.  

Ahmed Bouzid.