Re:

["Melynda Huskey" <mghuskey@hotmail.com>]

Don Kaag writes:

>DEPLETED uranium!  It's about as radioactive as the hands on your watch.  
>The DU rounds are armor penetrators, and they use a depleted uranium alloy 
>because it is the densest metal known to man.

Gee, that'll teach me to make an ill-informed post and then fail to check my 
email for days!

Prompted by Don, I did a little research and found that I was completely 
wrong about radioactivity and Kosovo.  The BBC has a great fact sheet on 
depleted uranium ordinance--they're not quite the enthusiasts Don is on the 
subject, particularly with regard to the toxic dust generated, but they 
proved me wrong. (And truth to tell, I'm relieved.)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/europe/2001/depleted_uranium/default.stm

On the other hand, Don also said:

>But don't think for a minute, whether you like it or not, that there >are 
>not "rough men" out there somewhere making it possible for you to
>exercise your violence-secured First Amendment right to post pacifist
>nonsense on Vision 2020.

You know, those "rough men" (and women!) make peace less possible, not more. 
  The idea that armies secure peace through threat is just as nonsensical to 
me as pacificism is to you.  Peace is not the substitution of intimidation 
for active warfare.

Here's a quotation from the War Resisters League that I find pertinent:

"Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a 
farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to 
come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want 
war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That 
is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who 
determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people 
along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a 
parliament, or a communist dictatorship.
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the 
leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being 
attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing 
the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
Hermann Goering (April 18,1946, as quoted in Gustave Gilbert's *Nuremberg 
Diary,* Farrar, Straus & Co, 1947.)




_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com