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Old 05-26-2009, 02:45 PM   #22
lbb
Location: Massachusetts
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,202
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Terrorism, torture and US foreign policy

(this is spun off the "aikido and bushido" thread on the General forum -- apologies if the thread title doesn't do justice)

Quote:
Brian Northrup wrote: View Post
Iraq is one thing, but what about South Korea or Syria or Burma or Europe during WWII or various other countries in Africa, Or the people of Saudi Arabia etc...
The argument you've been trying to make is (paraphrased) "Those other countries ought to shut up about what the US is doing, because they asked us to do it." As I pointed out, in the case of the Iraq war (which is really what we're talking about here -- remember we got to this point in the discussion by talking about whether torture is justified to fight terrorism), in fact, many countries strenuously objected to the US's starting the war.

So, you don't want to address the case of Iraq? Okay, but if so, you're dropping the whole discussion of US policy leading to and resulting from that war, thus making it pretty hard to carry on a discussion about US policy re: torture. So, we'll consider those topics closed.

As for your "what about", I'm not trying to be difficult, but your "what abouts" are just too general. Entire nations don't speak with one voice, much less entire continents: "South Korea" didn't ask the US to go to war on its behalf. I'm not even sure what conflicts you mean with your reference to Syria and Burma. In any event, though, it's such a bad idea to take a request for assistance as a blank check to act however you please. It's not ethical behavior, for starters, and from a purely pragmatic point of view, it always blows up in the end.