[extropy-chat] Rational force?

Lee Corbin lcorbin at rawbw.com
Tue Dec 12 05:47:35 UTC 2006


Samantha writes

> On Dec 10, 2006, at 10:59 PM, Lee Corbin wrote:
> 
>> I agree with you that we must abhor torture, keep it
>> illegal, and abstain from detaining our citizens without charges. But
>> those caught on the battlefield under the flag of no country have, in
>> my opinion, none of the legal rights of American civilians.
> 
> They have all the rights of human beings since that is what they are.   

Rights in the abstract again, I suppose.  There aren't any such things.
There are legal rights established by custom or law. The rest are
merely things you happen to approve of.

They have *no* legal rights, I repeat.  Those caught on the battlefield
under the flag of no enemy should be captured and dealt with summarily.

> Our founding documents make explicit that rights are not a matter of  
> citizenship in this or that country.  There are also international  
> conventions on such matters that we are signatories to despite this  
> administration's insistence it can ignore such at its sole discretion.

Those conventions were---so far as I know---established as rules
of appropriate conduct between civilized nations.  The "nations"
the West is fighting against---or I should say, trying to fight against---
are not at all civilized. Their barbarism knows no bounds. 

Why don't you and some of the other idealists here go into the tough
parts of town and see how far you get rendering niceties to the gangs
you encounter there?

Lee



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