Who are we?

[ThomWV]

I want you to picture in your mind the scene of the one young man standing in front of a tank in in protest at a square in China. Thousands of people surround the man, an army follows the tank, the world is watching, and there he stands. The tank came to a halt. With it the course of a nation changed. A few days after this incident took place I read that the young protester had been interviewed and revealed that he never felt in danger. He said that it had been ingrained in him since childhood that no Chinese would purposefully harm his brother.

If that had been an American tank driven by a GI in an American city the protester would have been run over. Indeed in our Army there would have been volunteers to drive the tank. To this day we have Air Force Officers stationed in silos with their fingers on the triggers of total destruction who were chosen for their jobs very much because they would not hesitate to annihilate mankind.

This is who we are.

[RethugAssKicker]

1. Unfortunately, I tend to agree.

[lame54]

2. Or a bulldozer in Palestine

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Rachel Corrie, RIP.

http://www.rachelcorrie.org/

[Orsino]

3. Really?

You think that if armor were deployed on American soil, that tankers would be volunteering to be the first to crush a peaceful citizen? And that an officer would have been eager to order the killing?

I know we're training our troops to do this overseas to threatening foreigners, but I think we're a long way from our own Tianenmen Square. I think.

I hope.

I have to hope.

[malaise]

4. So what happened at Kent State? n/t

[Orsino]

7. That was at the end of years of tension between the military and other citizens.

I don't think we're at that place again.

Yet.

And I'd still distinguish between a possibly itchy trigger finger and driving a tank over someone.

[Jim__]

6. Overall, that is remembered as the Tian an Men Square massacre.

The local PLA were sympathetic to the protestors. The Chinese government brought in PLA from outside the province, and they had no such sympathy. Wikipedia has some details.