[extropy-chat] Re: Meta: Too far

[Samantha Atkins]

On Jun 29, 2005, at 4:00 PM, Joseph Bloch wrote:

>
>
> Actually, the precedent set at Nuremberg was that one could not  
> obey _illegal_ orders. "Morality" being such a nebulous and  
> subjective thing, after all. And indeed, there are examples of even  
> SS soldiers refusing to participate in atrocities and being  
> reassigned to other duties immediately, lest the courts become  
> involved and the whole mess become open to public scrutiny. Indeed,  
> it was that very fact that knocked the block out from underneath  
> the "I would have been arrested and executed if I hadn't done as I  
> was ordered" because, in fact, many people had refused and were not  
> arrested for doing so.
>
> Now, that being said, I think there is a WORLD of difference  
> between forcing unarmed Communist party officials to dig their own  
> graves for summary execution in 1943, and US Marines firing at  
> Iraqi soldiers who are armed with machine guns, tanks, and RPGs (or  
> terrorists armed with machine guns, suicide bomb-vests, and RPGs).  
> And if any of my European (or any other, for that matter) friends  
> cannot see that distinction, then I mourn for the loss of any sort  
> of substantive communication between us.

Do you believe this in the only type of people our military forces  
are firing at, bombing and so on?

- samantha