thank you cindy and craig corrie for standing up in the name of your daughter. please send the corrie's a message; let them know you appreciate their herculean efforts to seek justice in the face of murderers.

http://rachelcorriefoundati...

"If Israel insists on calling Hamas a terrorist organization, what to call the Israeli army?"

agents of a racist apartheid state.

...peace...

Israel's government has been compelled to stand before the world and declare its complete amorality, its lawlessness and its terroristic policies.

l look at that photo of Rachel Corrie and my heart breaks into a million pieces. I cannot imagine the depth of grief her parents must endure knowing how their daughter died. It's excruciating for me to view; for them it must be an unimaginable and daily form of torture. Especially with the recent unjust verdict.

These words sound overused and hollow but I AM sorry. I'm sorry her courageous being was extinguished at such a young age because of depraved, indifferent and inhumane reasons. What these murdering scumbag morons don't realize is that the spirit is an immortal, powerful energy; Rachel Corrie may not be here in the flesh, but her valiant spirit prevails through the millions of people who loved her.

That picture of Corrie is too much to bear - as are the pictures of dead, desecrated by US Gi's, .......and pictures of broken weeping mothers and fathers holding what used to be their child after a cowardly drone attack. .... A pox on ALL their houses! (........slightly altered line from Romeo and Juliet - there would be others from that play that are equally applicable, if anyone would like to add them)

Rachel is an heroic martyr whose deed will shine on through ages and ages hence.

We have had the "moral army" myth for thousands of years. Roman soldiers had "virtus" or manliness in killing. The Catholic Church has its "just war" doctrine to justify mass slaughter of innocents.

All soldiers in all armies in the entire history of the world are murderers and rapists, or their accomplices.

All soldiers in all armies in the entire history of the world are murderers and rapists, or their accomplices.

Absolutely

I agree. I don't understand where there is any expectation of people being trained to kill and then doing what they are trained to do as being somehow noble. It just doesn't make sense. I wonder how many of those boys that came back from the trenches in WWI felt that they had contributed to society by being there.

John points out that:

"I don't understand where there is any expectation of people being trained to kill and then doing what they are trained to do as being somehow noble."

Indeed. In a just and ideal world there would be statues and monuments built and streets named and parades given in honor of those people who had the courage and wisdom to refuse military service. Unfortunately any desire to honor COs [conscientious objectors] is just not going to happen in a conformist and militant society such as the United States where questioning authority is so often the exception rather than the norm.

As Albert Einstein once accurately observed:

"The pioneers of a warless world are the youth who refuse military service."

My father landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day. I know he deeply regretted his role in the war. When he returned to the states people treated him as a hero (he had a slew of medals), but he couldn't stand it and left the US and lived in Italy for many years.

Your sentiments and aim seem (to me) to be commendable and correct, Tom, but you have your facts wrong. On one, you're just plain wrong. On another, you obviously over-reach. The Catholic Church does, in fact, have what's has been commonly referred to as a "just war" doctrine. However, in spite of certain popular and ill-informed comment to the contrary, that doctrine does not and never has justified the "mass slaughter of innocents" (sic). In fact, the doctrine to which you refer specifically and explicitly (and qiute naturally) prohibits it. Your characterization of "(a)ll soldiers in all armies" as "murderers and rapists, or their accomplices" must be owed to an excess of emotion on your part. Otherwise, it can't be explained. You're a good man. God bless you.

Michael,

During the crusades Christian soldiers cooked and ate Muslim babies.

The Catholics and protestants slaughtered each other by the millions.

As to having "an excess of emotion," unlike most Amerikans I have real emotions, not deadened by religion or drugs.

Tom C.

Well said.

Exactly who defined the "innocents"? And I gather slaughtering a few was acceptable.

Most of my pals in VFP know that there is no such thing as a moral soldier - except for those who become consientious objectors.
To the parents of Rachel...I am very sorry. The world lost a giant the day your daughter died. It is now up to all of us to follow her example so that her death will not have been in vain.
A few days after Rachel died, I stood with an 18 wheeler at my back. I could feel the increasing heat of the engine as it inched closer. I gained the strength to stand there in silence with my head bowed until the police arrested me, only because I was thinking about Rachel.

War is nuts even in the best of circumstances. That's the only way to look at it. Yes if it's kill or be killed, most will kill.

Life can be good. It's best to do without war.

There are many things on which I've wholeheartedly agreed with you, rosemariejackowski, but there are certain things on which I disagree with you here.

A) Many soldiers, both here and in Israel, for example, have managed to break the silence by coming forward and revealing the horrific deeds that they participated in during our wars, and during Israel's occupation of West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, because they regretted and were quite ashamed of what they did. The same thing is happening now, here in the United States, as a number of American soldiers who fought in our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, who regretted what they did and came forward. Bradley Manning is one such example, and he's admirable.

B)Many Israeli soldiers are refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories because they rightly believe that their occupation of West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, and the subjugation of the Palestinians living in those areas have nothing what so ever to do with security and, in fact, is not only sapping the strength and morale of their military, but has corroded them as a society and as a people as well. They advocate withdrawal of their troops and settlers from WB, Gaza Strip and E. Jerusalem, and an independent, sovereign Palestinian nation-state alongside Israel.

Rachel Corrie's death was unfortunate..and needless. The loss of a loved one is tough, and I send condolences to her parents. However, I have to admit that, imo, there's something inherently not wise about putting oneself directly in the path of a moving heavy piece of metal machinery to convey a message and getting oneself killed or permanently maimed in the process.

Having said that, I think that since several ISM members had some rather narrow escapes while standing between bulldozers and Palestinians' houses slated for demolition in the Occupied Territories, this should've been a wake-up call for the ISM to immediately alter their strategies and operated in a much larger arena; inotherwords, not let people supplant themselves singlely between moving bulldozers and houses slated for demolition, but have many, many more people blocking those bulldozers, if they were going to do that at all. That, imho, would've reduced the likelihood of serious injury or death and Ms. Corrie might well be alive today.

Q: "If Israel insists on calling Hamas a terrorist organization, what to call the Israeli army?"
A: Satan's Minions.

And the U.S. gives Israel BILLIONS, fucking BILLIONS, of dollars every year, mostly in the form of weapons and armaments to this rogue terrorist shithole of a country. Who are the real terrorists for profit AND fanatical ideology in the form of psycho Christians and Judaism?

The ONLY thing keeping israel "safe" is the U.S. war machine, representatives of the greatest terrorists on the planet.

you are the only poster i see that got it right....and its so simple
peace

Blaming the victim - typical of an abuser to do. It was her fault. She shouldn't have been there... etcetera ad nauseum. Of course if no one protests anything then they win. If we protest and are killed, they win because it "was of" our "own making"...

Double bind. We lose.

It's all the fault of the psychopaths. Healthy adults settle disagreements by talking, not taking. The only use for an army is to take, or to prevent taking.

How could any fellow in his right mind kill in cold blood this sweet decent gal? This is sick and sickening. She was just trying to help those who are oppressed. Some felllow if he calls himself Jewish in relgion needs to read the Torah.

One could even add that Israeli schools, like those in Germahy since 1815 have "become schools of death" in the words of that sage Scandinavian educator.

Breaks my Heart , Corrie your a true martyr ..you will not be forgotten ...shame on you Israel

....

war begets war ... when has it ever been different?

There is only one thing to say: Rachel Corrie is------------not: was,---------a heroine and a saint. Anything else is trivial, to say the least.

I think we all knew what the Israeli court ruling would be. But what's maddening is that in a sense Rachel's death and the US Government's reaction to it have lead to "extrajudicial" murders and targeting, drone usage against ally sovereign nations, threats made by the Secretary of State that peaceful protestors should not address the Gaza situation (turning their backs when peaceful vessels were attacked in international waters and peaceful activists were murdered) and to all the other excesses practiced in our senseless war on an undefined enemy ("terrorism"). "Terrorism" is a chimera invented by the Israelis to justify any attrocities they see fit to practice.

The Israeli and other military are TERRORISTS.

"The most moral army in the world"....

Blaming the USA for the Second World War is more than a bit ahistorical as is even the First World War. This is in no way saying war is good. But Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and do look into just now has come out about what they did there. In At the beginning of the First World War which megalomaniac Germany started it invaded neutral Belgium, severely damaging or destroying a Catholic santuary. Now this doesn't say the other side was all Simon Pure. But
Germany had been this way going back to at 1815 when a Scandinavian educator said "German schools" had "become schools of death" teaching Germans they were better than others, and others were only fit to be their servants. Enough of such brain washing will almost without fail create a madness which sooner or later will find someone who won't put up with it. France chose not to put up with it until ganged up on by all the European parasite run monarchal states.
Vive Le France! To hell with Brittania and all the rest of the jack asses and savages.