X-NUPop-Charset: English
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 1996 17:18:26 -0600 (CST)
From: "Alan Spector" <spector@calumet.purdue.edu>
Sender: spector@calumet.purdue.edu
Reply-To: spector@calumet.purdue.edu
To: revs@csf.colorado.edu
Subject: Quiet? War Crimes?
Things are a little quiet on REVS these days.  The war in Bosnia may have
stopped for the time being, but the stresses that are being manipulated are
still very explosive in many parts of the world.

There is something that bothers me about all this talk of "war crimes"
during the war in Bosnia.  I share with many people the conviction that
anyone who executes unarmed civilians is guilty of war crimes, and I have no
problem with such people being punished after some reasonable due process to
ascertain their guilt.

But am I the only one who gets annoyed at the sanctimonious, self-righteous
chatter from politicians and the press about war crimes in Bosnia, when
there is no doubt that the U.S. committed many, many such crimes during the
war against Vietnam?  The vast majority of people killed were unarmed
civilians, killed by the U.S. forces.  Similarly, the tens of thousands of
unarmed civilians executed by military forces in Guatemala, and the tens of
thousands of unarmed civilians executed by military forces in El Salvador--
in both cases with the aid of the U.S. government-----surely these qualify
as war crimes. The actions of the Indonesian government towards East Timor,
with hundreds slaughtered (not to mention a half million murdered by that
government with the aid of the CIA and West European governments in the
mid-1960's-----all this should raise some questions about just WHO is
qualified to judge war criminals.

I realize that this argument can be use to deflect/diffuse criticisms of
those who have committed war crimes in Bosnia.  I have no intention of
softening any criticism of those criminals.  I just don't like it when,
either explicitly or by implication, criticisms of OTHER war criminals are
muted or ignored.


Alan Spector

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Alan Spector, Ph.D.                 Phone: 219-989-2387
Behavioral Sciences Department      FAX  : 219-989-2008
Purdue University Calumet           E-Mail: SPECTOR@CALUMET.PURDUE.EDU
Hammond, IN  46323   USA

{Editor of REVS--- an international email network for
                   Racial-Religious-EthnoNationalist Violence Studies}
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