[ ARC forum 2 ]
Written by mike at 11 Apr 2003 09:26:24: Re: Amen!
As an answer to: Re: Amen! written by chImp at 11 Apr 2003 02:13:44:
Ok...Ivan never actually said the terrorists are evil...sorry, it's late...too much on my mind to sleep.This is the problem with Ivan's argument, and the argument that terrorists in general are evil. Evil is a subjective thing. So are morals. The terrorists, while in my mind resort to acts of evil, sincerely believe they are doing good. Same could be said about Bush, to me invading Iraq the way he did was an evil act, but he sincerely believes it's for the good of the world. Each action is born out of a completely different moral code (even though the end result is the same)...whose to say whose is correct? Personally, Bush's scare me more because he guises it as liberation...but that's just me, and that also could stem from where I live, as out in the Middle East the terrorists may be claiming they are "liberating" the world from an American Empire. Evil, by definition is not absolute. To say so is just plain arrogant, self righteous and 100% wholly American. Actions are evil, not people.
>(By the way, to you believe that US represents the good?)
>USSR was neither better nor worse than USA. They behaved just like a superpower is supposed to behave- arrogant and hostile. USSR started the war in Korea, USA started the war in Vietnam. But at least Reagan could have enough respect for their rivals and not label them as "evil". By the way, how many American civilians were killed because of USSR (and vica verce)? Close to zero.
>The fact is that USA WANT to have an enemy, a goal sort of speak. After you're finished with Iran, Syria, NKorea and PRoChina what comes next? Your intolerence will simply grow higher. Eventually, the death of just ONE American will be enough to go to war.
>>As for the Soviet regime being 'civilized,' at root 'civilized means nothing more than living in settled, relatively stable communities. Big deal! (We really do need a word that expresses more than just 'city-dweller') That regime made war on their own subjects. A government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed - but the residents of the USSR were captives, they never had a chance to give or withhold their consent. As for inspiring 'nostalgy' - virtually any situation which lasts a substantial period of time will inspire nostalgia among some people. Many ex-prisoners find themselves nostalgic for the orderliness and lack of required decision-making within the prison walls - a particularly apt analogy for the victims of socialism (whether in the guise of communism, fascism, naziism, or other form), mohammedanism, and other inhuman totalitarian philosophies.
>>>The Bush administration clearly demonizes Al Qaeda and everyone suspected of having a link with it. Don't you remember the "Axis of Evil" speech? And Reagan called the Soviet Union as the "source of all evil". Soviet Union in the 80's was a quite civilizes country and many, many Russians look back at those times with nostalgy.
>>>>Okay, you're wrong. The Bush administration never used logic remotely like this to justify the extension of the war against world terrorism to the territory of Iraq. The primary argument has consistently been that the Ba'athist regime harbors and sponsors terrorist organizations and was developing various weapons of mass destruction for use against the USA and its friends and allies (and if he was not continuing to pursue these, he could have avoided invasion by giving the inspectors the documentation to show what had happened to what he was known to have had and the opportunity to confirm it). Hussein was known to have stated many times over the past dozen years that the biggest regret he had was that he did not wait the few years it would have taken to have nuclear weapons before invading Kuwait.