X-Message-Number: 17628
From: 
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 09:50:55 EDT
Subject: "terrorists"

It's off topic, but a few words may be in order.

Dr. Haftka (#17618) tends to convey the impression that all "terrorists" are 
equal and it's only a matter of whose side you are on. Not so.

Guerrilla warfare is not the same as terrorism, and some "oppressors" 
actually are such while others so labeled are not. Some ostensibly fighting 
for "freedom" are actually fighting for domination. Arafat and bin Laden are 
terrorists; Castro is not.

Menachem Beigin was not a terrorist in the sense of Yasser Arafat or Osama 
bin Laden; he didn't systematically target civilians such as busloads of 
school children. There are fundamental qualitative and quantitative 
differences. In the Viet war, there was a reported American atrocity at My 
Lai; there were American atrocities in WWII. Does that mean the U.S. was just 
as brutal as the Congs or Nazis? Of course not. 

So short skirts and dancing and Coca Cola and booze are abhorrent to some 
Muslims; in their view we are cultural and economic imperialists. They are 
therefore justified in cutting the throats of stewardesses and crashing 
planes into buildings. Dr. Haftka of course did not mean to convey that, but 
I think he should acknowledge the difference. 

Again, Arab hatred of Jews preceded the wars--the wars were a result, not the 
cause, of the hatred. The young Palestinians of today were brainwashed from 
earliest years, which makes the situation extremely hard to change--but the 
Israelis remain the defenders, not the aggressors. The U.S. is not uniformly 
angelic, but by no stretch of any sane person's imagination do our 
shortcomings justify a Jihad.

The only "good" thing about the recent attack is that it may make us crack 
down on world-wide terrorism before a weapon of mass destruction is used.

Robert Ettinger

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