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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (41695)	12/26/2001 5:14:12 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

The problem is with the view that there is something "wrong" with us using "force", There's nothing wrong with using force. But force is just one tool in the toolkit. For some folks, it's the first and only tool they consider. Those folks are called "bully." Sometimes force is the right tool. More often, it's not. The trick is to know which tool fits which situation. Karen

To: jlallen who wrote (41695)	1/3/2002 12:39:54 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 82486

The problem is with the view that there is something "wrong" with us using "force", (economic, military or political) to impose, or coerce acceptance of, our views (freedom, democracy, capitalism) on those who might prefer communism, oppression, etc. Very few people prefer to be oppressed. I would see nothing morally wrong in using force to depose, for example, the North Korean government in theory. In practice the use of force would mean war, and war causes horrible suffering, but that is a flaw of the means not the end. If we somehow had the power to cause North Korea to be a free capitalist democracy, despite the objections of its current government, without causing any great amount of suffering to the North Korean people, and possibly others (US armed forces if the war isn't as quickly successful as most of our recent wars have been, people in South Korea and possibly Japan and other countries if the effects of the war go beyond North Korea's boundaries, Chinese people if China intervenes), then I would be all for it. Of course the chance that that we could make such a big change against the will of the local government without causing war and suffering is so small that it probably isn't something we have to bother to think about too much. Even in Afghanistan where the opposition was very weak the war caused suffering (hopefully a greater degree of freedom, the cessation of the longer term lower level war, and US aid will help more then US bombs, missiles, and shells hurt. Tim