I'm with you, Fred. In this country soldiers and sailors I've known refer
to the military as "the iron tit," the source of lifetime security. It
provides our only socialized medicine system, subsidized housing, moving
expenses, higher education, even subsidized department stores. And a
healthy pension after 20 years, with most of the other benefits continuing
till death. Very few sign up to be warriors--it's usually the best gig they
can find. And that goes double for the civilian employees. So yes, I'd say
that they're usually among the innocent, as innocent as any of us in this
society where it's impossible not to be complicit, whatever our politics.
The same, I imagine, could be said for the average Afghani.
Mark
At 09:59 PM 9/25/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>Lawrence Upton wrote:
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Frederick Pollack" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: 25 September 2001 16:43
>> Subject: Re: Letter to a leftist friend
>>
>> | Someone will pay, in blood and pain, for what has been done to innocent
>> | American civilians.
>>
>> Do you include in that category "innocent American citizens" those who
>> worked in the Pentagon. If so, why? If not, why not?
>>
>> Serious question. Please answer.
>>
>> all the best
>>
>> L
>
>Yes. If one assumes that everyone who works in the Pentagon, including
>janitors, clerks, quartermasters etc., is guilty of neocolonialism and
>imperialism, one is following the same standard whereby already starving
>(and perhaps apolitical) Afghans may soon be "acceptable collateral
>damage." One accedes also to the idea, with which GWB agrees, that this
>attack was an act of war.
>
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