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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (56993)	7/30/2004 1:30:33 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793897

Cheney ripoff? Newt said tonight that Cheney used this line: help is on the way. As the key line in his 2000 acceptance speech for VP at the GOP convention. Kerry used it five times as his closing for his speech. I guess that is part of of the "recycling" that Kerry is proposing in his environmental plank.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (56993)	7/30/2004 1:50:52 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 793897

Thomas P.M. Barnett likes the Junod essay. thomaspmbarnett.com Junod, of course, is late to the table for these ideas, which could explain his absolutism, converts are typically zealots. Yet, I suspect that you, Lindy, unclewest, etc., will agree with the following sentence (I don't). If we do not find it within ourselves to identify the terrorism inspired by radical Islam as an unequivocal evil—and to pronounce ourselves morally superior to it—then we have lost the ability to identify any evil at all, and our democracy is not only diminished, it dissolves into the meaninglessness of privilege. I don't think it's necessary to think the enemy is evil. They are the enemy because our worldviews are mutually exclusive, and the struggle is existential in nature. Kill or be killed, and we don't think that dying for our cause is to be wished for, killing for our cause is what we prefer. I don't think it's moral relativism to say they believe that we are evil, although obviously we don't agree. Abortion is evil, infidelity and adultery are evil, women's lib is evil, refusing to submit to Allah is evil, praying to the saints to intercede on your behalf is evil, religious freedom and tolerance are evil. There are plenty of Christians here in America who have those same beliefs. It's fancy footwork to assert that your beliefs are good and just, and those who oppose them are evil. I believe that the initiation of force and fraud are evil. But they believe that we initiated force. Deciding who's evil is a red herring. We all have a moral right, a moral obligation, to defend ourselves and others from being the victims of force and fraud. We can argue about who started it for eternity, but in the meantime, protecting ourselves is morally justified even if the other side isn't evil, but merely self-interested and promoting their own agenda, hopefully (for them) at our expense. Life doesn't have to be a zero-sum game, but it's not evil to assume the worst. Assuming the worst about your enemy is not evil. Cynical, yes, possibly cheap and irrational, yes, yes, but not evil.