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Lawrence Upton wrote: > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Frederick Pollack" <[log in to unmask]> > To: <[log in to unmask]> > Sent: 17 December 2001 16:06 > Subject: (no subject) > > | There's a great deal of wisdom in Dominic Fox's latest posting. > > I was pleased when he said that he had forgotten what the point was he was > trying to make. I thought it was me. > > I found it hard going with the relative vagueness rather like your - as in > _some academic or academic-hanger-on feminist theorist_ > > easy enough to condemn something unspecified as _whiny tyrannical > chip-on-shoulder lucubrations_ > > Not much danger of being challenged on that if you don't name names > > not much interest in reading it > > & are those addressed as _ you sweeties_ among those who are those who are > designated _some academic or academic-hanger-on feminist theorist_ > > these are rhetorical questions > > | And by the way, have any of you noticed that the Taliban's gone? And > | that nobody seems too heartbroken? > > Of course not - individuals will be mourned especially as I doubt that all > theTaliban are terrible people, just people bullied and / or tricked by > terrible people - but no one would *want them > > Such a pity the US helped put them there > > But many others have gone too, many of them as innocent as any on the > planet. And many more still are still here, but are blinded and / or maimed. > > That is on top of the many who were killed in all the years when Northern > Alliance were the enemy > > Few who get the microphones in USUK seem to remembering the blue skies the > day *those innocents were killed, because of course their lives aren't as > important as ours > > If pushed, those who feel smug about recent events will say that because the > perpetrators didn't want to cause those injuries and deaths then they are > not responsible for them > > So, who's to be saved next? The Chechens? The Tibetans. I think not. > > L I'm glad to hear from you again, for there's something I've wanted to ask you. It's about this business about everybody's life being equally important - not just in the eyes of God, or Universal Values, but yours or mine. If a friend or family member or even a neighbor of yours were brutally killed, don't you think you might be slightly more perturbed by this than by the death of a statistic somewhere? I agree, by the way, that the US - largely by inattention after '89 - helped to "put the Taliban there." But now they're gone, and with very little - here it comes - collateral damage. All that weepy rhetoric on this list about bombs bombs bombs dropped by us "nutters" - but the truth is that most of them fell precisely where they should have. There's music in Kabul now; and who knows, kids may someday have a chance to fuck and disco and eat wonderful junk food. A net gain. OK, I've walked right into it - now you have a chance to portray Al-Qaeda as victims and indulge in yet more transcendent moralism.