"wrong to kill Koreans, Chinese and Vietnamese"

[Doug Millison]

Otto:
"Does this mean that it hasn't been wrong to kill Koreans, Chinese and
Vietnamese. This is the same self-centered, egocentric view some critics see
in the US over and over, no matter of left or right."

How about the US with the support of its European and other coalition
partners, slaughtering innocent Afghans in the current war, or don't they
count?  As many as 3,500 civilian dead,  according to one count,  at least
1,000 according to Le monde yesterday, little kids and old people dying
every day because of hunger and exposure due to the war's interference with
delivery of humanitarian aid to the refugees -- in a misguided military
attack that has yet to capture the "mastermind" of the September 11 attacks
or any of his top aides, an attack which appears to have done little more
than let most of the mastermind's minions escape into the wilderness while
leaving a humanitarian nightmare in its wake. (Not to forget the
serendipitous benefit of removing the Taliban from power, but it's shameful
that the US supported that government in the first place and ignored its
crimes against the Afghan people for 5 years -- and, arguably, the US never
would have done anything about it if not for the September 11 attacks,
following in the bloody tradition of its long history of supporting
murderous governments around the world.)

It's worth noting that the only person actually arrested and charged in the
September 11 attacks has been brought into custody by traditional police
procedures, albeit with a little help due to Bush's suspension of civil
liberties guaranteed in the US constitution.

Whatever a reader makes of Pynchon's political sympathies based on the
evidence in his writings -- and they are recognized by critics as
"leftist", anti-fascist, anti-Reagan/Bush, pro-labor, pro-environment with
a special attack on oil producer, etc. -- his sympathies with the innocent
victims of aerial attack are especially clear in GR, a novel which also
poignantly depicts the plight of war refugees.