At 09:19 12-9-01 -0400, Gautam Mukunda wrote:
>How do I say this? No. Our _responsibility_ is to find everyone who did
>this - and kill them. This was not our fault, and I reject entirely the
>efforts of those who attribute to us some sort of responsibility for what
>happened.
This is putting it too simple, Gautam. The involvement of the US in the
Middle East is not appreciated by a great many people (and most countries)
in that region. No matter how righteous you may think the US's involvement
is, it is a fact that many people do not want it. You can not expect to
mess around with people's lives and not get some angry response. Nobody
here is saying "only blame America", but it is not reasonable to only blame
others either.
Jeroen
Jeroen, there might be more than ten thousand Americans dead today. I
_don't know_ if four of my closest friends are still alive today. All I
know about two of them is that their offices were at ground zero in the
Pentagon. I don't know if they were there. I don't know if their offices
moved. I don't have any way to contact them. I don't even know how to
_find out_ if they are still alive. All I can do is wait by my computer
hoping for an e-mail. I spent much of today going through my address book
trying to figure out who else I know works in the WTC. I still don't have
a good answer to that question. The fiance of one of the people in my
office was on the first plane to hit the Towers. Do you think that maybe
an "angry response" wasn't a good way to describe what just happened - and
that whatever your problems with the United States, nothing could justify
the murder that was done? And that any attempt to say that we are somehow
complicit in creating the circumstances that led to this event (as if any
circumstances could begin to justify what just happened) might be a bad
thing to say right now?
Gautam
