I sort of take this as an invitation for a new debate. In general to the zone for sure, but also for myself.

I promise, Tom, I will read this carefully and respond to it over the weekend.

However, for now though I can't resist the little barb:

I know I've got you conservatives on the run when you have to revise (indeed: reverse!) core conservative principles in order to justify a reasoned stance on a particular issue (such as the invasion of Iraq).

Even better (or worse), when those core issue being revised is in the direction of the views and positions held by the Dark Power- Bill Clinton. Global Police!

How exactly, though, I will argue on this 'world police' and 'world authority' and the notion that we can justifiably invade states(causing civilian casualties) for any other reason than self-defense....

How exactly I will argue on these issues is as yet undetermined in my mind. In fact, I have never been able to satisfy myself with a position concerning notions of 'criminal states' and innocents therin.

I do know what I feel about attempts at corpse-pile comparison, as I told Dan:


And I know, you will say "well saddam would have killed nearly that many over the next 15 years"- yes, you are right, but nevertheless the particular people we killed were still killed by us, for our reasons and for our agenda- this makes them Our responsibility and I am not swayed by stacking actual corpses (the 10,000 dead) against potential corpses and calling the smaller pile of wasted lives 'justified' and 'the right thing to do' simply because it is smaller by some unknown potential. Morality just does not work that way- it cannot work that way.

Frankly, that Dhamer killed three people does not allow me to kill one innocent standing next to or protecting Dhamer AND Dhamer and say its okay because I only killed two people.


I will think on it.

In the meantime, you never responded to this last message of this subthread

plaintext:http://www.habitablezone.com/currentevents/messages/284933.html

Not that I demand an answer. but its about to go to page two... Sort of a 'going thrice' sort of thing.

Davin L.