This little cat and mouse gets sillier and crueler by the moment, Lawrence.
I wasn't so much positing relative innocence as questioning the relevance
of the term. But if you wish to comfort yourself that some are less
complicit in the society in which they live and that that somehow gives
them a greater moral claim to life be my guest.
Mark
At 10:39 AM 9/26/2001 +0100, you wrote:
>Ah, so - for Mark - we are speaking of relative innocence. I don't know if
>that applies to Frederick, but let's go on from what Mark has told us - if
>we're all agreeable.
>
>Are they, the workers in the Pentagon, as relatively innocent as those in
>WTC who were not in the military, a janitor perhaps? Let's compare, say, a
>procurement officer in the Pentagon and a janitor in WTC - are they of the
>same relative innocence? And, if so, why?
>
>Are there not degrees of complicity?
>
>L
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Mark Weiss" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: 26 September 2001 04:03
>Subject: Re: Letter to a leftist friend
>
>
>| 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.
>| >
>|
>
|