(urth) (no subject)

António Pedro Marques entonio at gmail.com
Wed Jan 19 07:48:31 PST 2011


Gerry Quinn wrote (19-01-2011 14:57):
>
> From: "Lee Berman" <severiansola at hotmail.com>
>>
>>> Perceptions vary based on history and culture. What many Americans
>>> consider a justifiable,
>>> even necessary action is considered one of the worst crimes ever
>>> against humanity by most of
>>> the rest of the world.
>>
>>> That seems a highly unlikely assertion. Got any statistics to back it
>>> up?
>>
>> I should be more careful in my word choice. "Most" does imply a
>> majority and is likely to
>> instigate a call for proof from those who disagree. Given that most of
>> the world lives
>> below poverty level in Asia, Africa and S. America it might be more
>> accurate to say that
>> most of the world doesn't know or care much about US foreign policy.
>>
>> Among those in Europe, Asia, Africa and S. America who do know and
>> care about U.S. foreign policy,
>> it may be that a majority have a negative view but better to sidestep
>> that and amend my statement to
>> "many in the rest of the world".
>
> I think "many in the rest of the world have a negative view" is correct.
> It is a little more nuanced than "most of the rest of the world consider
> it one of the worst crimes ever against humanity".

I don't think it can really be discussed meaningfully nowadays. Everyone and 
their cactus have opinions on things related to the US, without necessarily 
knowing anything about the matters.

Among the people who do have an informed perspective, not many question the 
wisdom of the bombings. All the same, they can recognise they were brutally 
horrendous insensitive racist hateful acts. The motivations for something 
and its net value are independent.

The reason people abhor nuclear bombing in a way that they dnt conventional 
bombing, is that in conventional bombing a reasonable proportion of the 
potential victims is able to fight for their lives, even if the odds are 
low. With nuclear bombing, the idea people have is that it just kills 
everyone in a given radius instantaneously. That sounds inhuman (yes, 
inhuman, not simply inhumane).



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