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Dear Eric & CASI: Much of my response to your acquaintence's note has been stated already: mostly that "understanding" should not be equated with endorsement or acceptance. At the risk of making myself unpopular, our acquaintence makes a good point that I have noticed as well: ". . . I have serious doubts that CASI writers are peace-loving or care about 'the children.' What is certain is that it appears that CASI writers only care about attacking the United States . . ." Too often I have seen many of my fellow anti-sanctions activists use the Iraqi crisis as simply one more place to portray the United States and Great Britain in the worst possible light. The lack of curiosity in some quarters of the anti-sanctions movement on relevant aspects of Iraqi history, methods of politics, and the nature of the current regime in Iraq indicate to me that to some this issue is used simply as a platform against current American foreign policy, not as anything like a "nonviolent" response through compassion and justice to policies which bring evil results. One poignant case in point was during my trip to Iraq with a proiminent anti-sanctions group, another delegation member was not aware that the Iran-Iraq War had *ever taken place.* This person was apparently more interested in the criticism that could be brought to bear upon the US/UK than in any real compassion for the Iraqi people who have suffered so much in the last few generations. Another case to show our inattention to the Iraqi people as opposed to the current geo-political situation might be that workshops on Iraqi history, proposed for the last anti-sanctions convention in Colorado, were turned down. I welcome the comments of Eric's acquaintence, as these criticisms have needed to be said of us for some time. Hopefully this can be the start of a much-needed conversation. Best, Charlie Brown Salt Lake City, UT _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk CASI's website - www.casi.org.uk - includes an archive of all postings.