[quote=briansd1][quote=Allan from Fallbrook] Following that logic, then, are you arguing that certain things ALWAYS Wrong?[/quote]
Yes, certain things are always wrong.
But… sometimes, in extreme circumstances, the end justifies the means. It doesn’t help to be right and dead (dead right). You need to live to fight another day.[/quote]
Brian: Okay. So what defines extreme circumstances? For example, did Dubya’s belief that Saddam had WMD justify the Iraq war? You made the point that the NYT supported the Iraq war and research will tell you why: There was significant and compelling intel coming out of Iraq showing that Saddam was supporting al-Qaeda’s efforts, both materially and monetarily, and the thought of al-Qaeda armed with WMD provided a casus belli.
Similarily, Alan Dershowitz posited a thought experiment (the “Ticking Time Bomb”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticking_time_bomb_scenario) wherein he laid out a justification for torture. As you know, Dershowitz is extremely well-educated, considered one of the best defense attorneys in the country, and is certainly not a right-winger.
In terms of “extreme circumstances”, there are two examples. We’re now entering our tenth year of war following 9/11 and have seen significant erosion of civil liberties, use of torture (under both Bush and Obama Administrations), continued and current use of extraordinary renditions (dating back to the Clinton Administration) for “enhanced intelligence gathering” and a markedly increased (under Obama) drone strike campaign in Pakistan (a sovereign and supposedly friendly nation and ally).
When does this all end? At what point, Brian, do you look at this and ask if its all worth it? More importantly, at what point do you acknowledge that the well-educated, including a former Rhodes Scholar and a former professor of Constitutional Law, have forsaken their principles and their Progressive ideals in a “perpetual war for perpetual peace” (to borrow from Gore Vidal)?
