In a message dated 8/17/01 4:36:29 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<<
No, I called the US government's refusal to sign the Landmine Ban Treaty a
crime; I did not accuse the American population of committing crimes. You
can't hold a population responsible for the crimes of its government.
According to your statement, whenever a *government* of a country commits a
crime, the *people* of that country are also guilty of that crime. That is
obviously not true. Hitler (who was democratically elected!) has committed
genocide; by your standards, the entire German population of that time is
guilty of genocide. By those same standards, the entire US population would
be responsible for the deaths of people assassinated by the CIA.
Well but we do hold the german people at least partially responsible for the
actions of the Nazi's. At least in its early stages the Nazi regime was
elected (I would argue that this very quickly changed into a dictatorship but
lets not quibble about the differences between the US form of government and
that of Nazi Germany. Given past statements I would guess you see them as
essentially equivalent). The Germans hold themselves partially responsible.
I think what annoys me most is your willingness to excuse any national
behavior on the basis of past history with the exception of the US. We are
not allowed to worry about sneak attacks even though we do have Pearl Harbor
in our history and in our psyches. The jews of Israel are not cut any slack
because of the holocaust and in fact it is apparently reasonable in your
world view to accuse them of the same crimes perpetrated on them by the
Nazis. North Korea has no right to treat its citizens badly and to threaten
war with the South because of its fear of the US. It is responsible for its
own behavior and should be judged by that behavior.
>>
