Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utcsrgv.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!dave From: dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: war in the americas Message-ID: <1830@utcsrgv.UUCP> Date: Mon, 25-Jul-83 17:12:50 EDT Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.1830 Posted: Mon Jul 25 17:12:50 1983 Date-Received: Mon, 25-Jul-83 21:24:37 EDT References: <2224@teklabs.UUCP> Organization: CSRG, University of Toronto Lines: 26 From: kenb@teklabs.UUCP Does anyone care to comment on current U.S. policy of genocide against practicing Christians and Christian leaders in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador ? I don't know much about current U.S. policy, but I take strong exception to the abuse and demeaning of the word "genocide". The term is thrown about wildly whenever people want to describe a group that is somehow being oppressed. There are VERY FEW instances of genocide which can legitimately be called that. The destruction of European Jewry under the Nazis can be called genocide. So too, if one believes the Armenian version of history, can the Turkish massacre of Armenians, and probably events in Cambodia. Whatever the U.S. is doing in Central America, I hardly think it is actively murdering all the people who belong to a group simply because they belong to the group. Is the U.S. killing *all* Christians in Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador? Now maybe people think this belongs in net.nlang, but the misuse of language to conjure up inappropriate images is a political issue. Israel is a prime target, often being accused of "genocide" and causing a "holocaust" for actions in Lebanon which nowhere near approached those terms. Dave Sherman Toronto