[extropy-chat] Death Toll

[Damien Sullivan]

On Mon, Jul 11, 2005 at 09:09:58AM -0400, Bret Kulakovich wrote:
> 
> I would like to posit that we view the lives as equal in value, or we  
> wouldn't be in Iraq in the first place.

No, the war was sold largely on the grounds of Iraq having WMDs, e.g. on the
grounds of Iraq being a threat to us.  If we really cared about lives we'd be
intervening in the Sudan and in Zimbabwe, and funding a lot more foreign aid
in clean water and health care.

> for it to thrive, aside from popular acceptance. Will Iraq and the  
> people of Iraq be better off in 100 years for this having happened or  
> not?

This seems like "the ends justify the means", beloved of violent
revolutionaries everywhere.

We can't see 10 years ahead very well, let alone 100.  The people who planned
the invasion couldn't even see 1 year ahead, to see the resistance.

> Let's change scale. Tomorrow doesn't matter. It is too immediate.  
> Give me a year as a hundred. It is not the day to day dealings and  

People die in the tomorrow, in the day to day.

> beliefs that will carry us, it is the results. Results don't come  
> from rehashing arguments, obviously, but a stalwart commitment to the  
> positive. Maintenance of this requires more courage than the offering  

Our civilization is centered largely on stalwart committment to following good
means, not good ends.  

-xx- Damien X-)