[extropy-chat] Re: Meta: Too far

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Samantha Atkins <sjatkins at mac.com> wrote:

> 
> 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?

They are the only type of people that our military forces are
*targeting*. If some civilians are killed because they are being used
as human shields, or because they act like insurgents (such as by
trying to run roadblock checkpoints, pointing tv cameras that look like
RPGs or Strelas, etc), that is a terrible thing, but it is not a crime.

Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com

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