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Re: The Truth can be ugly and painful, or Why America doesn't count for much anymore.
ER — (archived)

I'm sorry, VRB. But there is no easy fix to this moral dilemma. There is no technological solution to a moral question. Science does us no good here.

Even if there were some magic mind-reading machine, men will always be faced with the question of doing what is right, not just when it's easy, but when it's hard.

To kill is a universal crime, but we rightly make exceptions for self-defense. But what if your assailant is a man you don't even know, someone miles away you will never meet, someone just doing his duty just like you. You don't have to devise intricate torture scenarios to be faced with the insanity of war.

And where does the responsibility stop? I never fired a weapon at an enemy, but I did navigate a ship that protected aircraft carriers that launched bombers that blew up buildings filled with people just like me. And not all of them were soldiers. I was as much a part of that as were the pilots who flew those bombers.
Where do you draw the line?

These questions have no real answers, there is no additional information or logical procedure to help you do the right thing. And there is no religious or philosophical or political principle than can free you from the responsibility of making that decision by providing you with a pre-packaged solution.

The really important questions have no answers, and those who think they have all the answers may be the greatest evil of all.

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