From: bfrg9732@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Brian F. Redman)
Subject: Re: Never again. How soon we forget.
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 15:15:27 GMT

kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca (Ken Mcvay) writes:

>In article <1992Aug12.144041.1@fnalf.fnal.gov> maxwell@fnalf.fnal.gov writes:

>>Well, for me, the point is that the American News Media *lies* and *distorts*
>>what it reports.

>Some of us don't get our news from Yanks - this is, after all, an
>international forum :-)

>>I don't for a minute doubt that the Serbians *might* have death camps. I *am*
>>suspicious as hell when the news comes out so one-sided.  

>I don't believe the coverage _is_ one-sided in Canada, but the Serian
>irregulars do seem to have the overall points lead in Brutality and Ethnic
>Cleansing, and the Gold is clearly theirs...

>>It's not a case of saying "sorry, you're just not worth it".  It *is* a case of
>>saying, to Uncle Sam and his bootlicks (ABC-CBS-NBC-PBS-CNN) :"You are liars.
>>You have been caught lying to us time and time and time again. Why should we
>>trust you?" 

>...and, while saying it, know with a certainty that women and children, and
>other non-combatants, are being killed wantonly. I can see how that would
>appeal to some.

Sure, war is horrible. It *is* horrible the killing that is going on
over there. But did you know that there are thousands of people starving
to death in Somalia also? Did you know that because of armed conflict
in the region, relief supplies are not getting through? And where is
Bush and the U.S. on that one? Why aren't they raising a fuss about
going to Somalia with U.S. / U.N. troops so as to save Somalian lives?

Why haven't we been hearing the U.S. governments standard and inevitable
refrain "we have no money" on this one. Here in the United States we
have had a problem with children going to bed hungry for years. Here
in the United States we have had problems of homelessness, inadequate
health care and economic despair for years. And what do they consistently
tell us when the people in their outrage beg for a few crumbs of
assistance from the U.S. government? They consistently tell us, "Sorry.
We'd like to help but there is no money." Why aren't they saying that
*now*? Why aren't we hearing "Sorry Yugoslavia, but we have no money."
Why aren't they saying that?

After the Gulf War, president Bush triumphantly proclaimed that we
had put the ghost of Viet Nam behind us. It is as if by our
involvement in the Gulf War we had atoned for Viet Nam. I note that
you self-righteously allude to the World War II holocaust at the
end of your post. Is that what this is all about? Is it that we
have to go to war in Yugoslavia *now* so that we can atone for our
lack of involvement in assisting the victims of atrocities which
occurred over 50 years ago? Will going to Yugoslavia *now* atone
for what happened *then*?

Will *you* be going over there to fight what David H. Hackworth 
(a veteran of combat in the region and career military man) has
called "the meanest mothers in the valley of death and the last
tigers the United States ever wants to try to tame."? Will we
be seeing you over there, slogging through the mud and the rain
and the cold, atoning for atrocities that happened 50 years ago
and wearing a martyred look of self-righteousness? If you want
to go over there, go ahead. But stop demanding that others go
and risk their lives and limbs for your personal delusions.


Brian Redman
(bfrg9732@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu)
"Ah yes, Armageddon. I remember it well."


Newsgroups: alt.activism,alt.discrimination,talk.abortion