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Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

rshowalter - 05:15pm Sep 18, 2001 EST (#9394 of 9408)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Japanese Veteran Writes of Brutal Philippine War By SETH MYDANS http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/02/international/asia/02FILI.html By SETH MYDANS

MANILA — Jintaro Ishida knows his country's guilty secrets. Like few other Japanese, he knows in detail about the atrocities of World War II, and he knows of the quiet torment of the aging veterans who took part.

He knows, for example, about the massacre at the well in the Philippine village of Lipa, where 400 people were thrown to their deaths. The blood lust of the soldiers ran so high, he says, that one of them smashed a rock onto the head of a woman who was combing her hair. . . . .

MD8354 rshowalter 9/2/01 6:25pm ... MD8355 rshowalter 9/2/01 7:18pm

almarst-2001 - 05:16pm Sep 18, 2001 EST (#9395 of 9408)

If American troops set foot in Peshawar, ``the people will suck their blood,'' - http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/ap/20010918/wl/attacks_pakistan_18.html

I wonder if a "new crusaiders" know what they are up to?

rshowalter - 05:23pm Sep 18, 2001 EST (#9396 of 9408)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Rape Camp http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?13@@.ee79f4e/1512

Aged thirteen she was dragged
into a waiting truck
Taken to a military camp
Then by boat-train to Hiroshima - Japan

Behind the miltary hospital Assigned a small plain room
Next morning at nine a. m..
soldiers lined up

Each had a ticket
With name unit stamped and time allowed
"When I cried for my home i was beaten
I cried often
At the end of the war
I hadn't a tooth left in my head" Soon-Ae Kang

Medical checks were taken weekly
Fortnightly women were injected
with disinfectant 606
Causing them to abort spontaneously.
Causing infertility

Women who contacted venereal disease
were murdered

At the end of the war
women were herded into caves
That were dynamited
Or were forced to commit suicide
alongside soldiers of the retreating
Japanese army

Survivors have felt their pain
Over the past half century
each time they urinate

Daily soldier rape by endless lines

- disabled Japan's strong Confucian-Shinto ethos
Refuses appology
For deference to ancestors is sacrosanct

dawnRILEY

[words extracted from: Christine Toomey's 'waiting in pain' article]

rshowalter - 05:25pm Sep 18, 2001 EST (#9397 of 9408)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

almarst-2001 9/18/01 5:16pm . . the officers should know. And may well start thinking hard, when the tactics become entirely clear.

The enlisted men may come to know even better.

And perhaps they should think about the suffering they're causing, too - - and the implacable hatred of tens and hundreds of millions of capable human beings.

almarst-2001 - 05:34pm Sep 18, 2001 EST (#9398 of 9408)

Robert,

The retoric coming from Washington, the military moves and the recent pols conducted in US on a question of a massive military response with "acceptable collateral damage" (what a term!) just reinforced my oppinion that the only thing which can keep America in check is FEAR.

May be that just what the "doctor prescribed" to make the US policy more humble as promised by this President who apparently suffers from a severe loss of memory.

rshowalter - 05:42pm Sep 18, 2001 EST (#9399 of 9408)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Well, fear levels are higher now. And fear may be indispensible, for people to deal with each other as people.

(Lord knows, Americans are scared enough of each other , and of their government.)

But fear alone isn't enough. There needs to be more understanding, too, and in some areas, the issues are mechanical.

But let me make some quotes, from the media, that do give cause for concern, and that do reinforce many of the concerns almarst has been expressing on this thread, so diligently, clearly, and usually so politely, since March.

rshowalter - 05:43pm Sep 18, 2001 EST (#9400 of 9408)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

This, from fair , also seems an excellent (and noncontradictory, but aesthetically important) counterpoint to Natalie Angier's beautiful and true article Of Altruism, Heroism and Evolution's Gifts in the Face of Terror By NATALIE ANGIER http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/18/health/psychology/18ALTR.html

For altruism may not be evolution's only gift - - see responses to people on the "other" side of the line, not thought of as "us"- - but thought of as "them."

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