From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Mon Jan 20 2003 - 18:14:56 MST
LC>> Well, yes, death is bad. And war, which involves lots of death, is
>> very bad. But there are worse things, like suffering and slavery.
>> And there are times when the application of deadly violence /saves/
>> lives. Avoiding war is a noble sentiment. But avoiding a war that
>> is needed to free an enslaved people, or avoiding a war that is
>> needed to stop a genocide or a conquest, is elevating the sentiment
>> above reason. And the idea that war is never necessary to do those
>> things is not rationally supportable.
EY> Yes, that's why when Bush said he was not interested in nation-building,
> he lost any chance of my sympathy. The Marshall Plan is one of the few
> cases I can think of where war worked historically. I'd still be very
> nervous around war just on general principles, but at least it's something
> where, a few past times in history, there was a positive result. There'd
> be a *hope* of it being for the best.
Well, he didn't exactly say he wasn't interested, only that he didn't
think the US should be involved. He wants to leave the job to the UN, the
same organization that just democratically elected Libya to chair its
Human Rights Commission...
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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