On Fri, 2 Nov 2001 08:56:36 -0500 Jeanne Lenzer said:
>A listmembers asked if someone who opposed the bombing of Afghanistan
>opposed the horrors visited on the women victimized by the Taliban or those
>who lost their lives in the twin towers. I would like to respond this way.
>Why of course yes! In fact, many of us were concerned with the plight of
>Afghani women long before September 11th. Indeed, it is this very concern
>(among others) that leads us to oppose the bombing – because we cared enough
>to listen to those women and they are united in saying very clearly that the
>bombings cause more harm than hope; that bombing is not an answer to either
>terrorism or the horrid situation they face. Please read their words on
>sites like that of RAWA at www.
>As for the second question – I think that was deliberately nothing short of
>provocative and baiting. Do we cry and hurt for those lost on September
>11th? Please – rethink your question and what you are saying when you imply
>that those of us who oppose bombing must have less ?feeling ?patriotism than
>you. I will respect that you are driven to want to react out of fear
>(legitimate) and anger and not out of being a vicious thug. Good people
>respond to painful situations differently – that doesn’t make us evil or
>incorrigible – it just may mean that we need more information, that we need
>each other to moderate our views. Let’s try it.
I suspect that these comments refer to my post of yesterday, so I will
try to respond.
First, let me point out that I responded to a post that showed concern about
the severe adverse effects of the US military campaign in Afghanistan. I
simply asked whether the person who wrote the post was equally concerned about
the plight of Afghanis under the Taliban regime, and the deaths in the US
on Sept 11. The point was to consider the US military action in the context
of previous terrorist acts, and the previous conduct of the Taliban regime.
Perhaps she and others have shown such balanced concerns, but if so, they
provided no evidence of it on this list. Those who chose to use an email
list devoted to evidence based health to criticize US and alliance military
actions have not previously chosen that same list to criticize Taliban human
rights violations, or terrorist attacks.
Second, one reason I initially opposed opening this topic on the EBH list
was that I have seen these sorts of discussions quickly degenerate into
ad hominem attacks. Note that in the second paragraph, I am accused of
attacking someone's patriotism. Reread my post and you will find nothing
about patriotism. Moreover, the person supposedly attacked was Canadian, and
as a US citizen it would be extremely presumptuous of me to attack the
patriotism of a Canadian. Worse, note that in the second paragraph a
question is raised as to whether I am a "vicious thug." That is simply out
of place on an email list like this.
Let's try this again. I propose we take this topic off the list. I will
write nothing more about it unless provoked by additional posts on it.
---------------------------------------------------------
Roy M. Poses MD
Brown University Center for Primary Care and Prevention
Memorial Hospital of RI
111 Brewster St.
Pawtucket, RI 02860
USA
401 729-2383
fax: 401 729-2494
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