Hi, all,
Having read many of the posts on all sides of the Israel/Palestine
discussion, I would like to suggest that at least a part of the problem is
in the terms used by one and all. Some of the terms -- "terrorist" for
one -- are so emotionally laden that they block communication. With the
freight that these terms carry, any use is likely to provoke a reaction
based on the term rather than the point of the message.
In discussing the prisoners detained at Camp X-Ray, the Bush Administration
has stated that they are not prisoners of war because they did not meet the
Geneva protocols. I have neither the statement nor the Convention to hand,
but I believe one point was that the prisoners were not uniformed troops.
Thus they did not deserve the treatment mandated by the Convention. I would
suggest that the term "Prisoner of War" carries with it a freight that the
Administration wants to avoid, even though the same Administration went to
great lengths to convince us all that we are in fact at war with these
people.
I think it is ironic that one of the United State's greatest icons is the
citizen soldier, throwing down his plow to take up arms against an evil.
The patriots at Concord and Lexington were, of course, not signatories to
the Convention either, and were not uniformed troops. They had stockpiled
weapons, including cannon, against the legal authorities of the country --
that was the reason for the British sortie. They had also engaged in acts
of destruction against civilian shipping in Boston harbor and against the
representatives of the Crown.
Surely, using a term like "terrorist" would be inappropriate for these
fellows, but are they not on the same road?
I don't pretend to be either rational enough or educated enough to disarm
the terms being thrown about -- or to suggest alternatives. I do think I am
able to see that things as they are will not progress for either the
discussions here or the ones in the real world until some work is done on
the language we are employing.
Regards,
Darryl
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