 |
||||||||
|
3/30/2003 02:29:00 AM | Jared Alessandroni I'm for the Mogadishus I'm glad, Tim, to see another progressive run from a Leftists idea with his tail between his legs. I think it's somewhat facile to pass off Nicholas De Genova's comments as easily as the Columbia President and others do. Your aversion to wishing harm on anyone is fine, but the was is already started, and we started it Think about it like this: American lives are in no way more important than Iraqi lives. Yet, if Iraq pummeled us, they'd probably face at least somewhat fewer casualties. If, hypothetically, the same number of people died in that fight, just more of us, how is that more wrong? In fact, the impact of a death toll on a country is in many ways proportional, so it would take a lot more of us to even compare, and that's not even considering the amount of American infrastructure they'd have to decimate to break even. Given these two reasonable points, De Genova's argument holds water for a thinking humanitarian - at the end of the day, it's at worst a-moral - unless one wanted to argue that US life is more important than Iraqi life. De Genova's argument, of course, is more extreme. He thinks that the Iraqis should not only beat us, they should abuse our troops. Now this is a nasty inhumane thing, but, again, I'm with several others on this - inhuman treatment is bad, but war is war. Now, people should be tried for inhumanity, but isn't the act of war inhumane? Sullivan's translation is that De Genova would have people shot and then mutilated then paraded through the street. That's interesting. The problem for Sullivan is post-mortem. It's image, it's symbol. Well, that's not inhumane. That's political. Inhumanity is the act of killing in this case - but it's a war, that's the idea. This is the whole point. The idea of Iraqis killing and maybe torturing our people is disturbing to everyone, it seems, but De Genova. But no one gives a shit about our going in and killing for no good reason. De Genova's dreams for a violent war are no different from many Americans' hope that we will torture the Iraqis that were responsible for 9/11 and our economy and AIDS. In man-on-the-street interviews on CNN and Fox even children spout vile inhumanity against Iraqis. They didn't even start the damn war. And you judge the audience at Columbia for not being outraged. You bemoan De Genova's inhumanity. Think about it. Where's the frustration at the American Public for not being outraged? De Genova, unlike some assholes, doesn't think that US life is inherently more important. His point is that if one side is going to suffer, why the hell shouldn't it be the aggressor? Obviously, if you have a solution mid-war where no one suffers, and we unkill a few hundred Iraqis, I'd be glad to hear. perma link |
| 0 comments
0 Comments: |
Dartmouth The Free Press Alums for Social Change The Green Magazine The Dartmouth Dartmouth Observer Dartmouth Review Dartlog Inner Office The Little Green Blog Welton Chang's Blog Vox in Sox MN Publius (Matthew Martin) Netblitz Dartmouth Official News Other Blogs Ampersand Atrios Arts & Letters Altercation Body and Soul Blog For America Brad DeLong Brad Plumer CalPundit Campus Nonsense Clarksphere Crooked Timber Cursor Daily Kos Dean Nation Dan Drezner The Front Line Instapundit Interesting Times Is That Legal? Talking Points Memo Lady-Likely Lawrence Lessig Lean Left Left2Right Legal Theory Matthew Yglesias Ms. Musings MWO Nathan Newman New Republic's &c. Not Geniuses Ornicus Oxblog Pandagon Political State Report Political Theory Daily Review Queer Day Roger Ailes SCOTUS blog Talk Left TAPPED Tacitus This Modern World Tough Democrat Untelevised Volokh Conspiracy Washington Note X. & Overboard Magazines, Newspapers and Journals Boston Globe Ideas Boston Review Chronicle of Higher Education Common Dreams Dissent In These Times Mother Jones New York Review of Books New York Times Salon Slate The American Prospect The Nation The New Republic The Progressive Tikkun Tom Paine Village Voice Washington Monthly Capitol Hill Media ABC's The Note American Journalism Review Columbia Journalism Review CQ Daily Howler Donkey Rising The Hill Medianews National Journal NJ Hotline NJ Wake-up call NJ Early Bird NJ Weekly Political Wire Roll Call Spinsanity Search Search the DFP  |
|||||||
The opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of Dartmouth College or the Dartmouth Free Press.