re: #34 Black d20

Well, consider Nazi Germany was an utterly defeated nation and had no choice. While the US does owe the many surviving Nations (who’re mostly in dire straits), I don’t expect a moral imperative to force modern political hands. So the questions become ‘How?’ and ‘How far do we take this call for restitution?’.

Do we include restitution for non-Hamas-affiliated Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli actions? Iraqi and Afghani civilians slain due to the actions of OEF and such? Do we try to force Japan to give back for the Rape of Nanking? And if so for these and so, so many other past horrows, how?

These are all good questions and thank you for engaging with the actual ideas, a task that seems to be beyond some of the people here.

What I would say to that is that obviously human history is basically a story of people committing injustice to other people. When it comes to reparations the standard seems to be converging to the ability to make restitution to living communities that were affected. In the case of atrocities committed by Arabs, the Yezidis and Assyrians are here and in need right now, and many of the million Jews who were ethnically cleansed after 1948 are still around too.

As for the Palestinians killed by Israeli military action, I would of course say that they were killed in the process of defensive actions which is fundamentally different. There is also the issue of systematic atrocity, which I don’t believe the actions of the US military rise to.