if anyone is interested in reading the email content of rachel corrie's messages to her family just before she was murdered, go to www.guardian.co.uk./0,6961,,00.html.
after having read her tragic reportage, my opinion about the links of the gulf war to israel heightened. the utter audacity to host the united nations on our soil, for the betterment of international relations, legitimize the security counsel's veto power, waste 3 1/2 months of real work by inspectors, demand that iraq's defence arsenal be diminished to half of what it was in the first gulf war, and then defy the united nations' security counsel's motions towards extending the period of inspection by "going it alone", has to have far more long reaching implications than oil or revenge. further, in light of the demands made in resolution 1442 not being met by iraq as a reason to begin the attacks, has anyone considered that israel has been in defiance of the u.n. resolution that forbids it to occupy the west bank? ask robin cook, who just resigned with standing ovation (bbc news online), from the british house of commons for the very reasons cited above.
i suggest that rachel corrie is a real hero of the opposition to the war. at 23, she already realized that "doing something" required more than pontificating or philosophying on the net. and, unfortunately, her immense message, the impact of her sacrfice on the consciousness of america, has been lost under the cloak of the begining of the attacks.
sadiq