Re: The power of words

From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Thu Apr 18 2002 - 15:44:45 MDT


On Thu, 18 Apr 2002 CurtAdams@aol.com wrote:

> While the Yugoslavian cleansing campaigns were far more reprehensible than
> any hypothetical Isreali one, they killed only a small fraction of the
> population of Kosovo and the disputed Croatian territories.

I would note that the Dutch government has recently resigned
for its "acts of omission" in allowing such "cleansing" campaigns
to occur.

The fraction of the population is not so important as actual
numbers.

If it were only thousands of people who were murdered it
ranks on the scale of the 911 tragedy (perhaps more so
because it happened over a greater period of time, involved
people who were aware of what was taking place, who were supposed
to be "protecting" the refugees and *could* have prevented it).

And one can compare thousands or tens of thousands of people
killed in 911 vs. Yogoslavia with the millions that die from
hunger and starvation every year or the tens of millions that
die from "natural causes" every year. Creating a "proper"
context for evaluating deaths is *not* an easy thing to do.
You have to balance absolute counts with how difficult it
may be to prevent each death.

Robert



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