[P1] truth in advertising

[Jack Rodgers]

On Thursday, December 19, 2002, at 10:11  AM, Eric B. Richardson wrote:

> Committing suicide is nearly always the cowards out, and it was in 
> this case as well. They didn't ever face up to their choices, nor to 
> real opposition to their values. So it would depend on how you define 
> coward, but men who hide their beliefs, then kill thousands of unarmed 
> civilians in a supposed war, and kill themselves in the process, so 
> that they never face up to their crimes, pretty much defines the word 
> for me.

Again, the word coward is not appropriate in the context it was used. A 
coward runs away. They did not run away from their assignments, 
although some of them may not have been fully informed as OBL jokingly 
pointed out on one of his tapes. Probably only the pilots knew what 
they were going to do. The others were just 'pawns'.

Would you apply the word coward to the Kamikaze pilots? Naturally we 
didn't much like them...

Would you apply the word coward to the brave American soldiers who 
accepted one-way suicide missions (often portrayed in movies) or who 
knew that they would die on the beaches of Normandy? Or the pilots who 
flew into overwhelmingly hostile fire knowing they would not return?

We don't need to misuse the word coward to find a label for those men.

Should we call every enemy soldier our country has faced, a coward?

The President called them cowards to capitalize on knee jerk reactions 
of a less than well educated segment of our population that can be 
manipulated by slogans and insults. You don't arouse the American 
population with grammatically correct and carefully chosen words whose 
dictionary definitions precisely describe your meaning. Nope, you do it 
with emotionally charged words and sloganeering. Notice how terrorist 
and weapons of mass destruction have been over used.

Yes, it does depend upon how you define the word coward. Dictionary.com 
says 'One who shows ignoble fear in the face of danger or pain.'  That 
would mean almost everyone not of royal blood who has every been afraid 
is a coward...  :) I guess those born of royalty who experience fear 
shouldn't be called cowards.

So, calling them cowards is little more than an illiterate grade school 
yard insult.

The president does much better when he reads from a prepared speech and 
has time to practice his posturing.

---
My Presidential Campaign Begins: My first proposal is that a personal 
computer remains just that, personal, and that no company or person has 
any right to place, without informed permission, any software on that 
which would infringe on its security or privacy.
Jack Rodgers

Email: jackrodgers at earthlink.net
Web:  www.jackrodgers.com
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