Quote:
Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
That's not what I said at all, and you know it. I'm getting a little angry here......
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I understand what you said, Hank. You see the issue as presenting a paradox. I'm trying to get you confront that paradox.
You see, I believe that liberty and human dignity are moral absolutes. I don't think we have the power, the resources, or the will to enforce them everywhere they are being ignored or abused. But I do believe that every time we, as a nation, allow ourselves to set aside these liberties, we weaken our argument to the world that they are absolutes and worth fighting and dying for.
Your life, on a global stage, has no more intrinsic value than that of any man in Abu Ghraib. The only thing that gives one life more value than another (if indeed, it can be said that one life
can have more value than another) is what you do with it. When you allow yourself to think that using the tactics of the enemy can be in any way justified by the fact that you are trying to vanquish him, how can you declare your cause just?
If that angers you, so be it. I get annoyed from time to time by your constant gratuitous digs at me. At least this is something worth getting mad about. I guess you're just a better person than I am.
