Who kills more: terrorists or government?

[JohnnyCougar]

Over the past 50 years, who has brutally murdered more people?

[RC]

1. We need another poll

to find out which government kills more people.
My choice? The government of the United States of America.

[Atlant]

4. I dunno, 'might be the Khmer Rouge, but it depends how you count...

> We need another poll to find out which government kills more people.
> My choice? The government of the United States of America.

I dunno -- if it's limited to within the last 50 years, it might
be the Khmer Rouge. It might be the USSR.

Butthere's no doubt that if you tallied up all the dead bodies
around the world, we had some part in the deaths of a lot of them;
even if we didn't pull the trigger, we probably sold the weapon and
the ammunition, or propped-up the dictator who ordered the death, or
caused the turbulance that brought about the rise of the regime,
the "terrorist" group, or the "freedom fighters" that did the actual
killing.

Our hands are *VERY* bloody, and we're trying to wash them clean with
still-more blood.

Atlant

[ermoore]

7. Soviet Union probably.

The key here is which government. I'm sure every other DUer is just frothing at the mouth to say it's the US, but I don't think we're even close to the big dogs in this category.

Soviet Union - This might stretch the 50 year thing just a tad, but what's a few years more or less? Considering Stalin's 100 million, the invasion of Afghanistan (which relatively might not have been so much), Chechnya, Eastern Europe, and wherever else I didn't think of, the USSR is the frontrunner.

China - Mao killed a helluva lotta people.

Khmer Rouge - Yeah Pol Pot was a real sumbitch.

Saddam - I know not many people here like to say anything bad about Saddam (after all he was the victim of US imperialism), but he's definitely a big dog here. Genocide of the Kurds, war with Iran, genocide against Marsh Arabs in southern Iraq, and the million or so Iraqis that just disappeared over his twenty-ish (thirty-ish?) year reign.

[Dangerman]

13. What about North Vietnam in the 1960s

All our soldiers and some innocent people were slaughtered by booby traps, ambushes, terrorist bombs, sniper attacks and others by the NVA and the Viet Cong.

Thanks to them, they force us to commit our own atrocities against them.

Talk about eye or an eye.

[Make7]

16. What about the US in Vietnam in the 50s,60s, and 70s?

Are you serious? The United States was responsible for MILLIONS of deaths in Vietnam.

Are you suggesting that Vietnam had no right to defend itself? Are you suggesting that it was their fault that the US was even there?

How exactly did they force us to commit atrocities?

More like 400 Vietnamese eyes for an American eye.

-Make7

[Dangerman]

18. You got a point there.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[Dangerman]

3. Yessiree.

The United States government kills more people than Al Qaeda, I tell you the Truth.

[sam sarrha]

5. but often the governments are the terrorists...

[imenja]

6. They are only called terrorists when . . .

when they don't control the reigns of government and a standing military.

[JohnnyCougar]

8. exactly!

Governments are just "terrorists" with legitimate power!

Many of them, at least. This one for sure.

Instead of this "War on Terrorism" folly, I think the people should start a "War on Government". It can be a passive war, as we will never win a war of violence against government. But we can go on a tax strike, boycott corporations that support corrupt government, etc. I wonder what the government would do if 25 million people decided they weren't going to pay taxes next year. You can't put us all in prison.

[superconnected]

9. you gotta wonder

about those two votes that said "terrorists"...

[rman]

10. not a war on the concept of government.

government "by, for and of the people" - as it was intended - isn't a bad thing. we have to reclaim government from those who took it from us.

[JohnnyCougar]

11. I think we can do this

seriously...things just keep getting worse and worse. We need to have some fucking organization between all protest groups of the world. We need to pick a day when everyone around the world can protest simultaneously and make history. And we have to work the media into covering the protests like they mean something.

Could we get 25 million people around the world to organize on one day? Have protests in 50 main cities around the world? And at these protests, we announce our intentions not to support any corporation that gives to Republicans? This would have enormous clout. We can make a huge difference.

[JohnnyCougar]

12. Kick!!!!!!

We need a war on government, not a war on terror!

[Dangerman]

14. Hmmm... Think about it.

Osama - Terrorist - kills 3,000 people in one day
Bush - Government leader - kills 100,000 Iraqis and wounded hundreds of thousands more, sent 5,000 American soldiers to the hospital and 1200 to their deaths in a span of a year in a half.

You do the math.

[rucky]

15. What's the diff?

I guess one group collects taxes and another takes private donations.

:shrug:

[dethl]

17. Governments of course

they are larger than any terrorist group, which gives them more power...and corruption