Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site ihuxt.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!vax135!houxz!houxm!ihnp4!ihuxt!martillo From: martillo@ihuxt.UUCP (Yehoyaqim Martillo) Newsgroups: net.politics,net.rumor Subject: Re: A new theory about flight 007 Message-ID: <599@ihuxt.UUCP> Date: Wed, 20-Jun-84 18:14:01 EDT Article-I.D.: ihuxt.599 Posted: Wed Jun 20 18:14:01 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 21-Jun-84 08:14:12 EDT References: <2177@mit-eddie.UUCP> <593@ihuxt.UUCP> <2196@mit-eddie.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL Lines: 42 >>from Yehoyaqim Martillo: >>Electronic surveilance from space is so good nowadays there is little >>reason to use a military airplane for most purposes let alone a passenger >>airplane when the consequences are rather unpredictable if this passenger >>airplane should be shot down. >But the people on the plane who died are now martyrs. And the Western >culture is based on martyrdom (look at its major religions....). The Soviet Union makes martyrs daily of Afghanistanis, Refusniks, Soviet Human Rights Activists, Soviet Baptists, the Sakharovs, Polish solidarity (through surrogates), East Asians (through surrogates) etc. ad infinitum. There is no need for the USA to trick the USSR into creating additional martyrs. If I believed the USA government made such irresponsible use of its civilians, I would think about leaving. Randwulf is deluded if he thinks American and Soviet approaches to the civilian populations are alike. Besides pentagon ideology emphasizes winning the war rather than gaining the moral high ground. Civilian martyrs do not win battles. I am not sure what the point about Western religion meant. My culture considers martyrdom only admirable if it is unavoidable (according to Jewish Law). The Rambam (Maimonides) and the Maharal (Rabbi Judah Loewe ben Bezalel) of Prague disparage those who martyr themselves when they can avoid martyrdom. Perhaps Randwulf considers Judaism to be non-Western (as I usually do). But non-Western religions like Shinto and Islam highly esteem eagerness for martyrdom. Communism also has its own martyroloy. Since communism values martyrs and since individual citizens in communistic states seem to count for little, I would expect Aeroflot to be invading USA airspace fairly frequently so that Russian civilian planes could get shot down. The Russians could get lots of propaganda benefit out of such blatant USA brutality. -- Yehoyaqim Shemtob Martillo (An Equal Opportunity Offender)