Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

I'm still riffing on the 'Just War' theme. Like you, I believe there are circumstances where bombing does make sense, but only when there is some multilateral acknowledgement of a just cause and a legal case.

I imagine Powell sporting a bumper sticker that reads:

"There's no justice; there's just us" (Or even "just U.S.")

But I can't come up with suitable words to respond in bumper sticker format. I'd like to see Robin Cook's most telling line from Monday night's resignation speech distilled into a bumper sticker somehow:

"We cannot base our military strategy on the assumption that Saddam is weak and at the same time justify pre-emptive action on the claim that he is a threat."

A bit long, but perhaps it would still fit on the bumpers of all those tax-break SUVs

Moral: wright AND rong ???

Don't hate me for bombing you - I'm easily threatened.

To paraphrase an old saying:

If you're not ambivalent,
you just don't understand
the situation.

yeah, way too long.

Perhaps we can apply Bayesian filters to the problem, just like Arnold Kling is excited about for spam filtering. But to start tuning the filter, we're going to have to do a lot of random bombing to get some samples. Iraq is as good a place as any to start.

Is our leaders learning?

Why not remind us that an Iraqi father searching for his child in the rubble is no different from my friend who waited for a phone call from his son who worked in the Towers? Are Iraqi lives really not worth the ink? Or our attention?

Maybe the press won't, but bloggers can at least add a body counter to their site :
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/

I'd like to suggest a good bumper sticker: "You can't fight terrorism with ignorance"

It does a pretty good job summing up my feelings on one aspect of this war...

And the converse is true too.

"Comprehension of this world should not be condensed in slogans and bumperstickers."

Yes it should. And it should also be expanded on at length. And thought about in poems. And spray painted on walls. And danced. And commented on in blogs.

most people enjoy their ignorance, slogans and bumperstickers are a effective way to gain their attaintion that they will frequiently not understand and misinterpert stems from their inability to comprehend

Pre-emptive war is like pre-emptively putting down all dogs. You never know when one might bite ...

War never makes sense. How can killing make something better? How can violence ever make the world a better place? Have you ever seen what war does? Have you ever seen the pictures of bloody children crying naked in a landscape of twisted destruction? Do you know how it feels? Stop the war. Bring the love.

hello, l don't know too much about politics in general.I think the sticker "Bonmbing for peace...
makes a lot of sense. I just don't understand the logic og killing people. If someone comes to my house to hurt me or my family, l will defend it. I wont go to any country to assasine people because the goverment says so, because is the "patriotic" thing to do or because iam just a horrible human being that enjoys killing.
The whole political thing is kind of complex, even more when the goverment keeps most of the info secret.
Peace is something that is not dificult to have, l gess most of us like conflict.
War is a word like "cancer", it should not be in our vocavulary, because it is preventable,but we choose to look the other way, instead of solving the problem like intelligent beings, we always look for the blody way.
I have met people that have gone to war and have killed. They offend me.The word patriot falls from their mouth very easily.
To me a real patriot is someone that not only loves his/her land and its people but also other land and their people, enough not to want to kill them. Specially for economical interests.
Iam tired of these biggots trying to tell me that war is necesary and there's no other way,l just dont believe that. They say that war is neede for the good of "our" country "they" are wrong and must be killed. Doesnt't is sound like barbaric? l dont want to say like animals because animalsbehave more in balance with nature than we do.
well, you can judge me, come to a conclusion if you like, but killing still wrong, doesntyour bibletell you so? in one of your comandments?
or is it very hipocrit of those that say they are religious, and say god bless our troops...
l gess godhas to take a side....kind of small for a god isnt it?
yes, lets kill people...then ask gos for "his" forgiveness for being imperfect...
is like a game isnt it?
lfe just doesnt have any meaning for you at all, olny your life and you fellow citicens lifes are important
the other people life's are less important that our, because we are # 1
# one at what l say.
Pedro.

George Bush say Life begin at conception
Abortion and stem cell research is wrong even if it saves millions. The end can never justify the means UNLESS we are searching WMD then its OK.

Donald Rumsfield say "Shock and Awe"

Rummy shocked and awed that nobody shocked, nobody awed. Rummy say uhhh I mean "kinder gentler machine gun hand" Sorry about your parents kids. Rummy say Maybe we will use cluster bombs then they be in shock and awe.

Lets hope they don't watch Collateral Damage.

Ok time to check the war book: URL

Rummy's Big Book on WAR can be located here:

snowball.frogspace.net/labnotes/series_guide.html

We need Al's help on pasting that url. Is he still in charge of the Internet or did we put Pat R. in charge of that?