Well honestly, I'm not defending their actions in any way. I'm trying to point out, however, that their actions could be construed as a form of asymmetrical warfare. Is cutting one person's head off substantially more violent and evil than dropping a bomb on a civilian family? A dozen civilian families? How about a hundred?
Hypothetical: If a foreign army were occupying West Philadelphia and slaughtering your family, would you kill a man on video if you thought it would stop the larger slaughter? And: Given that this "war" is not a war at all but an illegal occupation, are resistors not free to retaliate in ways that are outside the normal strictures of war? Where do you draw the line? On Fri, 28 May 2004 04:25:54 +0000, KAREN ALLEN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Despite your claim that ** I'm not defending the actions of Berg's captors > in any way...**, your choice of words and comparisons reveal the opposite. > I have never disputed the fact that war is horrific, however, as I said, > some things go beyond all sense of humanity. > > >how does anyone justify the deliberate, conscious decision to cut > >someone's head off? > >I don't know, you tell me. Does simply taking a picture of the dead body > >make a difference in >this argument? > > Actually the body wasn't dead when they began filming. But somehow, they > seemed to know how it was going to turn out. > > >One photograph of a mutilated body was taken for the purposes of > >documenting the evils of war >and the events that took place at American > >hands. The other photograph was taken, in my opinion, >to shock the > >occupying army (and it's civilians at home) into stopping their aggression. > >Which purpose is more noble? Can a comparison be made? > > Absolutely. No one ever accused the photographers present at the liberation > of the Nazi concentration camps of causing the atrocities they documented. > No one ever accused Abraham Zapruder of causing President Kennedy's > assassination just so he could take a motion picture of it. Similarly, no > one is accusing the photographers of Iraqi war dead in the example you > cited as causing the deaths being documented. The same cannot be said of > your **noble** individuals who photographed themselves in the act of > butchering Mr. Berg. > > What those individuals did was evil. The fact that I believe that what > George Bush is doing in Iraq is wrong will never make me believe that what > those men did was right. > Karen Allen > > ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
