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Chomsky on Iraq
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grufty jim
grufty jim
1978 posts

Re: An analogy
Oct 17, 2002, 12:25
> To use another metaphor, would you consider
> it immoral for sabateurs to attack any essential
> resource inside Nazi Germany during the war -
> knowing full well that it would lead to German
> deaths ?
>
That's an interesting question, and i'd have to answer "No" to it, if the *primary* effect of the sabotage was to hurt innocent German civilians (and yes, that sparks off a whole debate about the concept of "innocence" in a nation with Death Camps - but that's a separate discussion, though perhaps a relevant one).

Y'see, my main problem with the attack on Iraq is that it will result in the deaths of many innocent Iraqis. Obvious really. That's got to be the first objection, and abstract geopolitical ideas like economic imperialism and cultural colonialism have to come after that first objection.

Individuals in the USA and UK have no right to make life or death decisions about thousands of people in Iraq. Simple. Straightforward. Ethically black and white in an area usually dominated by shades of grey.

Any protest that resulted in the death of people would be unacceptable to me under the same criteria. I don't believe i have any more right to make life and death decisions than Tony Blair, Dick Cheney or Dubya Bush.

By being prepared to take a life to make your point, you are either claiming to have that right, or that it doesn't matter that you don't.

Fair enough. That's where you see yourself. I just don't feel confident enough in my own infallibility and righteousness to make that sort of permanent decision about other people's lives.

Indeed, it is my opinion that one of the reasons the world is going down the toilet is because too many people, corporations and organisations have got it into their heads that they *do* have the right to make those decisions about the lives of others.

This war needs to be stopped if at all possible. Punishing the people of the countries waging it, when it is their government's who are to blame is like bombing Baghdad because Iraq has a bad government... oooh full circle!
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