And Kermit The Frog said "War is Heck"
Best, Geoffrey
Geoffrey Gatza
editor BlazeVOX2k3
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www.bazevox.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "Frederick Pollack" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2003 12:06 AM
Subject: Re: indiscriminate firing in NASSIRIYAH
> Mark Weiss wrote:
> >
> > Only our guys are fully human. How could it be otherwise? Hasn't it
always
> > been so?
> >
> > In the fullness of time, as you develop something like compassion, you
too
> > may become fully human.
> >
> >
>
> I don't quite understand for whom I am not showing compassion. But
> you're right, in part - I feel no compassion whatever for Saddam Hussein
> or anyone who willingly serves him. As opposed to those who fight
> because of fear of reprisal against their families.
>
> Lt. Col. Tim Collins, commander, 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Marines, 16
> Air Assault Brigade, to his men, 22 March: "The enemy should be in no
> doubt that we are his nemesis and that we are bringing about his
> rightful destruction. There are many regional commanders who have
> stains on their souls and they are stoking the fires of hell for
> Saddam. He and his forces will be destroyed by this coalition for what
> they have done. As they die they will know their deeds have brought them
> to this place. Show them no pity."
>
> The rest of his statement is equally moving. You can find it.
>
> Yes, yes, I know, sentimental, self-righteous, partial, a half-truth.
> In these respects like so much that appears on this list, and hence a
> useful corrective. And now I'll be silent. Because I know from
> experience it will do no good to say I detest Bush and Ashcroft, that I
> regard them as being ALMOST as dangerous to civilization as the
> theologians of jihad. It will do no good to argue that DESPITE the fact
> the US helped keep S.H. in power while he served its purposes, the fact
> that it's now deposing him MAY lead to a net gain in freedom for his
> people. Against whose oppression people like us would certainly have
> signed petitions, but never physically fight. It did no good for me to
> send that material about Sayyid Qutb - it inspired no serious, i.e.
> non-moralizing, questions about real forces in the world. It inspired
> nothing whatever - it didn't fit. Some of you have to see America as
> the greater enemy, no matter what it is opposing. A mullah, a suicide
> bomber, the stoners and mutilators of women, "brilliant Osama," Saddam
> H. - they're human, they're sacred victims, they're no threat, they're
> fucking MATES compared to, say, an oil executive.
>
> I'll go back to lurking, now. Sometimes there's useful stuff on poetry
> here.
>
>
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