[extropy-chat] Re: Iraq and legality again

[Samantha Atkins]

On Jun 24, 2005, at 5:43 PM, The Avantguardian wrote:

>
>
> --- c c <beb_cc at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>> The war is legally unjustified, we agree on
>> that. So what do we do after over two years and
>> three
>> months? What's the fallback position?
>>
>>
>
> There is no fallback position. We have go through with
> it all the way.

Baloney.  It is idiocy compounded to continue with what was stupid to  
begin with and ruinous to continue. The Iraqis would largely be  
delighted if we left.

> The Romans had a saying which
> translated from the latin was roughly, "Any fool can
> start a war but only the victor can decide when to
> stop fighting."

Not really.  We could leave tomorrow if we liked.  Our military  
strength is disproportionally large and it is an occupation rather  
than a war where both sides feel compelled to continue.  The Iraqis  
would happily stop if we were not occupying their country.

> One cannot sucker-punch somebody even
> by mistake and expect a brawl to not ensue.

This assumes relative equals and is very much inapplicable to the  
situation at hand.

> And once
> that happens, you have to win the brawl or lose it.

Again, inapplicable.

> There is no fallback whether your initial blow was
> justified or not. This is the karma of war and why any
> use of force is a very grave life-or-death decision
> not to be taken lightly by any head of state. This
> wisdom is thousands of years old. A pity that Dubya
> never read "the Art of War".

A pity that such bright people insist on searching for good excuses  
to continue shooting ourselves in the foot.

- samantha