From: "rosenblatt, joseph" <[log in to unmask]>
> Denys asks again: What war crimes has Bush committed?
> How about the carpet bombing of Afghanistan to get to Ossama bin La'adin?

CARPET bombing?  Do you know what "carpet bombing" means?

The Afghanistan campaign was one of the most precise bombing campaigns ever.
During the height of the campaign, the hospitals were nearly EMPTY:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/ny-warpesh172421918oct19,0,927960.st
ory
(or http://tinyurl.com/66ua if that wraps)

Estimates of civilian deaths generally ranged from 600 to 1,500.
http://www.comw.org/pda/fulltext/020211king.html
That's in a country of 27 million people.  Where has there every been a war
more carefully executed?

There had been a civil war going on for more than a decade that had killed
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of civilians (e.g. more than 50,000 in Kabul alone).
MILLIONS of refugees fled the country.

There's little doubt that, by ending the civil war and the Taliban regime,
more lives were SAVED than lost, even if you count only the first six months
after we started bombing. (The break-even point could be as little as _two
weeks_, even if you accept Marc Herold's discredited estimates.)

What I saw was:
   1) incredible care by the U.S. military to avoid civilian deaths
   2) millions of dollars spent by the U.S. before, during, and after the
war to feed the Afghans
-- Has any other government any time in history ever fed the civilian
populations of the enemy DURING the war? EVER?
  3) Delighted Afghans dancing in the streets at their liberation.
  4) A despicable regime ended
  5) A civil war ended
  6) Al Qaeda put on the run, with many of their leaders killed and the
training camps emptied.
  7) Millions of Afghan refugees returning to their country to rebuild it.

You see:
  1) American war crimes.


As I have said, I am marginally opposed to war on Iraq.  However, if I
thought things there would go as well as they did in Afghanistan, I would
say let's start bombing _today_.

Here's a little closing thought:  Every time you, Joseph Rosenblatt, have
said anything about the U.S., you have made me, Ken Hirsch, more supportive
of the war against Iraq.  I don't know what effect your words have on others
reading them, but for me, the combination of your naiveté and
anti-Americanism makes me think that war against Iraq is a good idea.  I
have to pause and remember that there are actually good reasons to be
opposed to it.

Here's one example of something you said that (I can only presume) you must
think is principled, but to me strikes me as so obviously, self-evidently
idiotic that it makes me wonder about your sanity or your motives:

"I will not engage in a quantitative argument. Whether the US killed 6, 60
or
6,000,000 in the pursuit of this policy is irrelevant. The fact that one
died is enough to make it the act and the policy illegal. The perpetrators
of the act and the creators of the policy are by extension criminals."

Or this:

"The fact that every nation desires to live in Peace and prosperity is
irrefutable. How they propose to attain Peace and prosperity is the
question. Peace implies lack of want and fear; it also implies self-
actualization and security. In other words, Peace is wholeness."

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