Re: POLITICS [&WAR]: Neo-Conservative policies and power

From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Wed Apr 09 2003 - 12:04:48 MDT

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    LC>> between the American people and its government, you then totally
    >> ignore that very distinction by implying that we are somehow
    >> attacking the world's people instead of their governments.
     
    DS> But do the people under the governments we attack make that distinction?

    That's a good question; if they do, then the cost of pissing them off
    may well outweigh the benefits to be achieved by the war, and that's
    a valid argument worth pursuing. But we can be clear and honest that
    we are talking about the perceptions of the people whose government we
    are attacking while still not buying into that perception ourselves.

    > > or imply that that we are attacking the people under them is
    > > dishonest and detracts from reasoned discourse.
    >
    > Well, governments don't get killed, people get killed. That's one thing
    > they'll consider. And if they feel some ownership of their government, or
    > loathe the idea of American invasion even more, they'll feel attacked.

    Governments do get replaced, and yes, sometimes that requires killing
    the people who created and supported that government. And some of those
    people, like conscripted soldiers, were unwilling participants, that's
    true. But we still have to be clear that we are making the distinction,
    and the distinction does exist.

    I'll even concede that benefiting the people of Iraq is probably not
    our major motivation for removing its government. After all, there are
    other despots--even such monsters as Pol Pot, who made Hussein look like
    a boy scout--who we did not choose to remove. But even with all that
    conceded, it is still a dishonest rhetorical trick to say that we are
    in fact attacking the people of Iraq, when we are doing no such thing. 

    -- 
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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