Re: POLITICS/CURRENT EVENTS: Non-Solution Unsatsfactory, Fwd: More on Lee Harris: Andrew Sullivan

From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sat Mar 15 2003 - 02:44:49 MST

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    Michael M. Butler wrote:
    > I'll try to put my thoghts down in sme sort of coherent way by the weekend.
    > In the mean time, forwarded from my friend Dan L., the below.
    >
    > "A DISMAL THOUGHT: I'm left with the conclusion that we will only get
    > such consensus in favor of pre-emption after the destruction of a major
    > Western city, or a chemical or biological catastrophe. In this sense,
    > Blair and Bush may simply be ahead of their time. And what they see as
    > the potential threat is so depressing and terrifying that it's perhaps
    > only understandable that the world for a while will wish to look the
    > other way. The truth is and we may as well admit it: we have failed to
    > convince the world, just as Churchill failed to convince the world in
    > the 1930s. And as 9/11 recedes a little, we are even tempted to falter
    > in this dreadful analysis ourselves.

    Uh huh. How is it "preemptive" if it is a response to a direct
    attack against the guilty party? Oh, you mean attack
    preemptively any and all who we think might be a threat
    sometimes although they haven't done anything? Sorry, but this
    is always wrong and always will be.

    >
    > "The difference between now and the 1930s, of course, is that we may now
    > have Churchill in office - but before the world has become convinced of
    > his rectitude: history repeated as a deeply tragic farce.

    There is not a bit of "rectitude" to be had in preemption.

    >
    > "STILL, SKEPTICISM: To add to the complications, we may be right about
    > the basic analysis but wrong in this particular case." --Andrew Sullivan
    >

    If we consider preemption to be reasonable then it is certain we
    are wrong in our basic analysis, never mind the particular
    victims we pick.

    - samantha



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