Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 16:38:16 -0700 Reply-To: Mark Weigand From: mail.usa.net@usa.net Subject: RE: Racism ... remember? To: mark@mbcltd.demon.co.uk, Racial-Religious-EthnoNationalist Violence Studies Once again I would recommend that anyone interested in the concept of war cirmes see the video or the book of the same title called "Faces of the Enemy" by the philosopher Sam Keen, available on most college campuses. It deals with the universal tendency of governments to demonize the enemy in order to facilitate genocidal programs, among other things. Another untold story until recently concerning World War II: the ten Japanese internment camps inside the U.S. which incarcerated about 110,000 Japanese American civilians, most of whom were American citizens by birth. When I was growing up, this was never mentioned in history books. In fact, I was in graduate school before I learned of these events. It makes me wonder what other untold stories exist about more recent wars in Korea, Vietnam, Granada, El Salvador, etc. I did see a television program called "The 90's" which interviewed civilians in Central America about the use of experimental weapons there by the U.S. during the 1980's. I also want to make the obvious point that racism is not exclusive to the U.S. or to modern times. Anti-Chinese racism was a part of Japanese policy during World War II, etc. No culture is innocent. And speaking of war crimes or state crimes against civilians, how should we evaluate the many radiation experiments performed upon unknowing American citizens during the cold war? Or in addition, the small towns in Nevada and Utah which were downwind of atmospheric nuclear tests whose citizens were regarded as guinea pigs for testing the effects of nuclear fallout? What about the citizens of San Fransisco who were intentionally exposed to biological warfare chemicals as an experiment? Ameican soldiers have been unknowingly exposed to chemical agents and radiation hazards so that scientists could measure the results. Does this sound any different than the government policies which American politicians criticized in the former Soviet Union? It seems that there is a lot of hypocrisy here. Another related concern: In the Gulf War, U.S. soldiers were involuntarily given as many as twenty injections, some of which were experimental and supposed to counter the effects of chemical agents. It is possible that the "Gulf war syndrome" health problems could be related to these injections, but I have heard of no studies to investigate this possibility.