Marcia wrote:
"It's more than that (one man) and you know it. Yes, unjustified killing is murder. Why did you capitalize evil? Sarcasm? After he and his followers killed thousands? "

I think Lindy extending this argument to the war in Afghanistan was unfortunate in general, but she still has a point. I disagree with her here in the in-general. I think our conflict in Afghanistan was regrettable, but we simply had to do what was necessary if we were to consider ourselves a soverign nation and defend ourselves.

However, you are correct, IMHO- the war in Afghanistan was not about Bin Laden- it was about the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and a smoking pile of corpses in New York.

However, Lindy has a point still, I think, in that many Americans believe it WAS about Bin Laden, and that killing a lot of unrelated people to 'get' one individual is somehow morally permissible.

I think A lot of the proponents of the Iraqi war think this way, or at least their rhetoric suggests this- as many of their arguments (ala Newt Gengrich) boil down to how bad a fellow Saddam was.

However, Iraq is not Afghanistan. Saddam is not Bin Laden. Self defense is NOT at issue here, and I submit to you that our actions are tantamount to murder.

Davin