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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elroy who wrote (243719)	10/2/2007 10:47:51 AM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Don't you see the difference between those two examples? One is killing a foreign enemy in one's homeland. The other is a deliberate and systematic act of savagery over an extended period of time. Incidentally, are you ashamed of Russian Christians' treatment of Muslim Chechnians? And btw, not all Americans are as ashamed of Abu Ghrayb as you seem to think. Or at least they would have put in measures to make sure it will never happen again, rather than banning cell phone cameras everywhere so they will not be caught red handed the next time. There can be many perspectives on the same event, as pointed out by Douglas Adams long ago: "It is an important and popular fact that things are not always as what they seem. For instance, on the planet earth, man has always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much: the wheel, New York, wars. [...] Butconversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than men; for precisely the same reasons." "42. (The answer to life, the universe, and everything.)" Douglas Adams (The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy)

To: Elroy who wrote (243719)	10/2/2007 1:36:29 PM
From: Lou Weed	Respond to of 281500

<<Don't you see the difference in your example? Americans are ashamed of the perpetrators of Abu Graib.>> Really?!? "A survey by the Pew Research Center in October showed that 15 percent of Americans believe torture is “often” justified, and another 31 percent believe it is “sometimes” justified. Add to that another 17 percent who said it is “rarely” justified, and you have two out of three Americans justifying torture under certain circumstances. Only 32 percent said it is “never” justified, while another 5 percent didn’t know or refused to answer." ncronline.org

To: Elroy who wrote (243719)	10/2/2007 4:09:11 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Don't you see the difference in your example? Americans are ashamed of the perpetrators of Abu Graib. We believe Abu Graib was wrong, and are ashamed that our team did it. Aren't the ME folks ashamed of the car bombers and head hackers? He will never see the difference. Just as Christianne Amanpour does not see the difference between God's Holy Jewish/Christian/Muslim Warriors. Once moral equivalence between all societies is a bedrock of your thinking, the only important thing is that you can point to fanatics in every society. That proves your point, as far as you're concerned. The fact that they are a shunned fringe group supported by less than 1% of the population and subject to criminal prosecution in one culture, but are a lionized group of "heroes and martyrs" supported by 80% of the population and receiving official rewards in another culture - that is of no interest to a multi-culturalist. Because the moral equivalence is the axiom of his reasoning. It can never be disproved.