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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated

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To: Lane3 who wrote (97344)	1/28/2005 1:08:07 PM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (2) of 793743

If we are facing a compelling threat, then plenty of people would sign up to fight and we wouldn't need a draft. If we need a draft, then it means that the interests we are serving are not recognized as ours by of a sufficient number of us, which makes a draft immoral. I thoroughly disagree. The British experience immediately before WWII is a classic example of the failure to recognize an existential threat, do something about it, and avoid untold millions of deaths. The British were facing an existential threat but influential policy makers ignored it, guiding public opinion against objecting to German rearmament and against an aggressive anti-Hitler policy. Very few recognized the existential threat the British faced in the 1930s; those who did, like Churchill, were jeered for being jingoistic saber rattlers. We are in my estimation facing an existential threat from militant Islam. The fact that many may not agree with me doesn't mean that what I and many others think will be proven incorrect. This is the logical flaw in your thinking--the fact that we may be facing a compelling threat is not necessarily recognized by the bulk of the populace and there is accordingly no reason to believe that it will rush to fight it. Unfortunately, the threat does not present itself in as clear a manner as I would like. Moreover, I think people's natural inclination is to disbelieve its existence since it requires sacrifice to meet it. I don't even mention the fact that those who do believe the Islamist threat is ultimately existential engage in a lot of windy debate on how to deal with it. But this is the way things work in a liberal democracy. Until the wolf is at the door, it is unlikely that the great bulk of the people will be very concerned about imminent threats. I suspect that we'll suffer through history repeating itself before recognition of the full magnitude of the threat sets in. It won't be until another attack of 9/11's size hits us that eyes [and minds] will once again become open to this threat we face. In the British example, Churchill simply dispassionately read and observed what Hitler wrote and did. We can do the same with respect to the Islamists and reach more or less the same conclusions about the Islamists that Churchill did about the Nazis.

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