DC> If you believe in something then you
should have the commitment to support it with action, not just words.
<DC
So I only get to advocate the existence of crime-fighting
and fire-fighting and needle-handling and drowning-prevention if I personally am
a combination cop / fireman / doctor / lifeguard? Sorry, your argument
doesn't even pass the laugh test. You might as well say "if you love Iraqi
liberation so much, why don't you marry it?".
DC> If you think invading Iraq was justified,
then go do your bit over there. Don't ask other young men to sacrifice their
lives for your philosophical beliefs. <DC
It's ludicrous
to suggest that anybody is dying for my personal beliefs. It's equally ludicrous
to suggest that any American soldiers are being singled out for suicide missions
in Iraq. American troops volunteered to join the military and to risk harm
to defend liberty in any circumstances duly chosen by America's
democratically elected constitutional leadership.
DC> Do you think the Louisiana National Guard
boys would be interested in their [sic] sophistries? <DC
Pick
any English-reading audience you want, and I'll be happy to show them how my
arguments eviscerate yours.
DC> They joined the guard to protect their
homes and families, which incidentally they cannot do because they're stuck
thousands of miles away in Iraq <DC
There's nothing in the Guard
enlistment process that promises the Guard will only be used on American
soil.
DC> bringing colonial occupation and a
system of government to people who never asked you for it in the first place.
<DC
Colonization implies suppression of sovereignty and
appropriation of natural resources. We have returned sovereignty to Iraqis, and
Iraqi oil will continue to be sold at market prices for the profit of Iraq, not
America. The majority of Iraqis -- Kurds and Shiites -- are glad to be
liberated from Saddam.
DC> Haha, I'd like to plonk you down in a unit
of those Guardsmen and have you try to persuade them why they should be putting
their lives on the line in Baghdad whilst their families are missing and
homeless. They would tear you up for ARSE PAPER and I can't say I would blame
them! <DC
The next time you have an idle daytime fantasy
involving exclamations about other men's anuses, you might want to keep that
information to yourself...
DC> But then again, people like yourself would
never put yourself in that position would you. You're stupid but perhaps not
that stupid. <DC
I would have no problem endorsing this
mission even from behind the Rawlsian veil of ignorance over whether I would be
sent on it. (If you never got far enough past 17th Century Metaphysics to
encounter Rawls, see
here.) (Oh, and feel
free to call me "stupid" all you want. In a duel of wits, name-calling is the
equivalent of declaring yourself to be unarmed.)
DC> By the way, smug, comfortable twats such
as yourself [sic] are the reason why Americans are detested throughout the world
today, and rightly so. <DC
I'm prosperous and I'm right and I
apologize for neither fact. I don't doubt that envious and guilt-ridden people
around the world dislike people with such attributes. However, as a
libertarian atheist, I'm very very far from a typical American.
DC> I took a first class honours in Philosophy
too by the way. My speciality was 17th Century Metaphysics and Wittgenstein.
Your Blog doesn't impress me. <DC
Methinks you doth protest too
much. As for Wittgenstein, see
here.
DC> But having done my degree, I got out into
the world and actually got myself some experience of real life. I also have
enough imagination and background reading to know and understand what living
through the hell of war is like. <DC
Thank you for so vouching;
that's four seconds of my life I'll never get back.