Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to Pacifism in a nutshell

Interesting.
Tom Brosz — (archived)

In all the fun with snide religious comments, we seem to have snuck away from the basic idea of this thread that the aid workers, humanitarians, and others who sometimes turn their noses up at the military are often helplessly subject to the whims of tyranny without those guns protecting them.

For another good example of how this "protected pacifism" works, go back to the famous "human shield" movement. It quickly became very, very obvious to us and them that the "human shield" trick only worked on civilized nations like America. Those we are fighting in Iraq and elsewhere would shoot right through them without a second thought. In fact, the more innocent people they kill, the better they like it. Which is why you don't see any "human shields" currently volunteering to place themselves on Iraqi streets to keep them safe from bombing and drive-by shootings.

Pacifism and courage are by no means mutually exclusive. There are plenty of pacifists with guts. Most of them don't have loud mouths, or are politically active. Despite the headlines, not all the humanitarian workers have fled Iraq or other danger zones. In the original story, you have to give the aid workers credit for being in Palestinian camps at all.

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