As the arguments on this board regarding the war continue, I have a question. Those of us living in free countries experience phenominal rights of expression. We are able to exchange ideas, call each other names, and in the main get along reasonably well. How is this so? It seems to me that the condition we all share is that at some time in the past, somebody was willing to kill or die for the beliefs which have resulted in our freedom. Unless you risked your life in battle for your country, you have paid nothing for this wonderful condition. I submit that to spout off here about how nobody asked us to help, that this is about oil, that we don't have the right to interfere or any of the other trite and hackneyed excuses for not stopping horror and attrocity, is vastly more arrogant, ethnocentric and cowardly than anything I've ever heard. Are tortured Iraqis less valuable than corrupt European politicians? Is their value less significant than those who want more diplomacy? Is something right or wrong because a group of politicians in a worldwide forum decide that's the case? Or, on the other hand, is it proper and ethical to intervene anywhere we see inhumanity. Never in history has the world seen a sitiuation which can have a resolution like this. Ethics are determined by introspection. Ethics are derived from basic concepts of "would I, if I were in the same place as those oppressed, wish to be helped." Is it ehtical to stop a rape even if the victim is unconcious and unable to scream for help. Is it ethical to stop a mother from beating her child in a parking lot?
If you answer that its none of your business to interfere in such things, then you have no basis for argument here. Ethics cannot pick and choose its rightness or wrongness based on surveys and polls or the need to hear a plea for help first. Ethical actions take place because a determination of something being morally wrong is made and action taken to make it right.
Granted, in this case, innnocents will die. The unfortunate part is that their deaths are the result of unethical actions allowed to continue by the world's governments claiming to be the greater majority who, in truth and for their own selfish reasons, just don't want to get involved.
Note: Liberals should only answer in cliches
Regards, zeke