War in Iraq Over

[airdvr 210]

kallend

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This is a cop out, honestly, and I hear it a lot. Saddam Hussein and his regime were particularly gruesome. Honestly I'd be in favor of doing whatever is possible to stop mad men from committing the sort of atrocities that he was known for, any time, any where.

I guess we still have a lot of invading to do, then. Lots of nasty, brutal dictators left in the world.

Their time will come. They won't be able to resist fucking with us.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[billvon 3,120]

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Saddam Hussein and his regime were particularly gruesome.

Agreed. But historically "so just kill him" doesn't work - we just get another particularly gruesome regime in its place.

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The real test of moral and political courage would be the willingness to stand up, acknowledge past mistakes, but still maintain that we're not going to let Islamic authoritarians of any type massacre an ethnic population in the most gruesome manner imaginable.

That's a great ideal, but unfortunately the alternative is usually to let their enemies massacre ethnic populations in the most gruesome manner imaginable. Our work supporting the Mujahideen comes to mind.

Doctors work to the ideal "first, do no harm" which is a moral principle that it is generally morally preferable to do nothing, even in the face of something bad, if by doing so you avoid doing something equally bad or worse. We are often tempted by the quick fix - depose Saddam Hussein, support the brave Mujahideen freedom fighters, install the benevolent Shah - that ends up being worse than the original problem. I think it is often better to do no harm.