tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31210316.post4227381193737349877..comments2023-08-02T05:02:41.706-05:00Comments on Reasons and Opinions: Support the Troops?shadhuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03933715508568783990noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31210316.post-33829304909950146002007-05-13T13:26:00.000-05:002007-05-13T13:26:00.000-05:00We have been treacherous; but that was only in ord...<I>We have been treacherous; but that was only in order that real good might come out of apparent evil.</I><BR/><BR/>The End does not justify the Means---unless we say it does.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31210316.post-23233558038959394042007-05-10T18:54:00.000-05:002007-05-10T18:54:00.000-05:00Sorry for the followup but this extract from the T...Sorry for the followup but this extract from the Twain piece was too good to pass up.<BR/><BR/><I>"[Those who Sit In Darkness] look doubtful, but in reality they are not. There have been lies; yes, but they were told in a good cause. We have been treacherous; but that was only in order that real good might come out of apparent evil....The Head of every State and Sovereignty in Christendom and ninety per cent. of every legislative body in Christendom, including our Congress and our fifty State Legislatures, are members not only of the church, but also of the Blessings-of-Civilization Trust. This world-girdling accumulation of trained morals, high principles, and justice, cannot do an unright thing, an unfair thing, an ungenerous thing, an unclean thing. It knows what it is about. Give yourself no uneasiness; it is all right."</I>Antonio Manettihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00487502995709519940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31210316.post-29118756460041775032007-05-10T18:34:00.000-05:002007-05-10T18:34:00.000-05:00Thanks to a comment in the Intel Dump blog, I came...Thanks to a comment in the Intel Dump blog, I came across the following piece by Mark Twain entitled "The Man Who Sits in Darkness". Although Twain is commenting on the imperial exploits of another day, the message is timeless.<BR/><BR/>http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/general/twain/personsitting.htm<BR/><BR/>A curmudgeon of Twain's stature is sorely missed.Antonio Manettihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00487502995709519940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31210316.post-48864252380474309382007-05-10T11:34:00.000-05:002007-05-10T11:34:00.000-05:00Yes, and his daughters, nieces and nephews along w...Yes, and his daughters, nieces and nephews along with Cheney's kids are all safely tucked away with "other priorities". No blood and guts for them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31210316.post-76617081691293832802007-05-09T03:25:00.000-05:002007-05-09T03:25:00.000-05:00Regardless of the policy at the top, the sad fact ...Regardless of the policy at the top, the sad fact is the longer this war goes on and the longer the deployments, the greater will be the impulse on the part of combat troops to meet savagery with savagery.<BR/><BR/>As to Bush's accountability, I'm reminded of Shakespeare's "Henry V", when a common soldier unknowingly addressed the following speech to the king, himself on the eve of Agincourt: <BR/><BR/>But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath <BR/> a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and <BR/> arms and heads, chopped off in battle, shall join <BR/> together at the latter day and cry all 'We died at <BR/> such a place;' some swearing, some crying for a <BR/> surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind <BR/> them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their <BR/> children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die <BR/> well that die in a battle; for how can they <BR/> charitably dispose of any thing, when blood is their <BR/> argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it <BR/> will be a black matter for the king that led them to <BR/> it; whom to disobey were against all proportion of <BR/> subjection.<BR/><BR/>Unlike the king, however, our sovereign sits safely behind a desk in Washington.Antonio Manettihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00487502995709519940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31210316.post-80743598791045360572007-05-08T22:31:00.000-05:002007-05-08T22:31:00.000-05:00I spent a few years listening to the inconsistent ...I spent a few years listening to the inconsistent claptrap put out by Aikin and several others of that ilk. There was an almost surreal aspect to it--as if every ex-protestant fundamentalist with an authoritarian personality was suddenly styling himself a "Catholic Apologist". I found a certain entertainment value to hearing them attempting to defend the indefensible, something they did quite often once the Iraq war got underway and started going badly. I eventually grew bored with the steady Bush-is-God drumbeat and moved on. Needless to say, I don't miss them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com