From: MLuftmensch-AT-hubcap.mlnet.com (Michael Luftmensch)
Subject: re-amnesty/peru
Date: 15 Feb 1996 21:33:32 GMT


re-amnesty/peru

luftmensch: Hugh, as you noted, I didn't disagree with what you wrote.
Amnesty is obviously not a state.  But AI swims in a putrid swamp: the
coordination of foreign policy with government agents of repression. And
slime has a way of sticking. And at the same time, I see no way out of
getting our hands dirty. That is no reason to make a virtue out of having
dirty hands. 

I hope to live to see the day of the class justice you describe. Likewise, I
hope to see it come about through unarmed struggle. I don't, however, expect
that this will happen everywhere. Hence, the need for rules of warfare.
Various universal declarations and conventions exist. They have never gone
far enough, but I think it unwise to reject them. They should be amplified,
in a radical manner. 

The killing of civilians by combatants may be unavoidable. But it cannot be
condoned and accepted as natural. It is not collaboration that must be
substantiated, but a  degree of collaboration sufficient to warrant violating
this principle.  (In this thread, that has yet to happen.)

I think that this standard is universal. If I knew that there was a universal
standards commission on the crab nebulae, I would feel reassured. 

luftmensch



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