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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
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>>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)