Category Archives: Just War

Updated: Memorial Day Message (On Just War & Against Pacifism)

Foreign Policy, Free Will Vs. Determinism, Just War, Propaganda, The Military, War

Since the Messiah was anointed (1/20/09), 72 soldiers have died in Iraq. He campaigned on bringing them home.
Glenn Beck asked every American encountering a uniformed man or woman to thank them in person for their sacrifice. No! Enough of this meaningless jabbering. I thank all the Ramos’s and Compeans of this great nation, who stand on this country’s soil and defend their countrymen from the worst of mankind.

To those who fight phantoms in far-flung destinations; I’m sorry. I’m sorry you’ve been snookered into living and dying for a lie. But I will not honor a lie, or those who give their lives for it. I cry for them, as I have from day one, but I can’t honor them.

To those who enlisted thinking they’d fight for their country and were subjected to one backdoor draft after another in the cause of illegal, unjust wars—I am sorry. My heart hurts for you, but I will not worship Moloch.

I honor those sad, sad draftees to Vietnam and to WW II. The first valiant batch had no option; the same goes for the last, which fought a just war.

“What I learned growing up in a war-torn region is that a brave nation fights only because it must; a cowardly nation fights because it can.”

LET THE SUNSHINE IN. This wonderfully executed tract of a lost soul shipping-out says it all for me (watch this classic antiwar film again, if you can):

Update (May 27): AGAINST PACIFISM. Pacifism is evil. Myron, whose delicious postings on BAB we relish—and who deserves a fan-base—has fallen into that error. There are most certainly just wars, just as surely as there is evil in the human heart. Myron, quit hanging around anarchists in cyberspace, or else you will, as the hard-left has and does, continue to reduce human evil to the state’s doing, thus relinquishing the philosophical cornerstone of civilization: free will and human agency. Here on BAB I argue from the vantage point of those tenets. Anarchism, invariably and by default, argues from the stance of social determinism. Or, in simple terms: the State made me do it.

Torture Tempest: Turley Vs. Patrick The Great

Constitution, Just War, Natural Law, Terrorism, The State, War

On dunking Abu Zubaydah, the views of that great patriot, Pat Buchanan, jibe with mine, as expressed in “To Bug Or Not To Bug Abu Zubaydah’s Cage (That’s Not The Question).”

Arguing from the natural law, as is my wont and preference, and pitting it against the positive law, Jonathan Turley’s purview, an impassioned Buchanan put the torture tempest in perspective:

Dunking Abu Zubaydah “is a violation of positive law, it is not a moral evil. Do you mean that waterboarding [this fella] is worse than dropping two atomic bombs on innocent people and burning 120,000 of them to death, sentencing 40,000 more to death by radiation—all to convince the Japanese cabinet to change its mind? What was worse?”

Turley, ventured Pat, is right about the letter of the law, but not necessarily about the higher moral law.

Watch:

Ultimately, the faff over “torture” allows members of the Evil and Stupid parties to get away with murder, both having acquiesced in launching an unjust war against innocent Iraqis. This is the real war crime.

Update II: To Bug Or Not To Bug Abu Zubaydah’s Cage (That’s Not The Question)

Iraq, John McCain, Just War, Neoconservatism, Republicans, Terrorism, The Military

The excerpt is from this week’s column,“To Bug Or Not To Bug Abu Zubaydah’s Cage (That’s Not The Question),” now on Taki’s Magazine:

“…torturing the torture issue has thrown the country off-scent, to the great advantage of the puppet masters.

The torture kerfuffle is secondary to – and subsumed within – the broader category of an unjust war, waged by George Bush with Democratic assent. Talk about a bipartisan effort; a pox on both Houses!

You can make the case for harsh interrogation techniques in desperate, dire circumstances. But how on Earth do you justify lugging an army across the ocean to occupy a third-world country that is no danger to you and has not threatened you? You don’t, and you can’t.

Forgotten in the faff over “enhanced interrogation” tactics is the invasion of Iraq. Of this war crime, most Democrats are as guilty as Republicans. The torture fracas is like manna from heaven for both parties and their media lapdogs, who cannot be coaxed out of a coma.

Whether to bug Zubaydah’s cage or not: This is a limited, small, relatively safe distraction that allows complicit journalists, jurists, politicians and pointy heads to skirt the real issue – the need to prosecute Bush, Cheney, Clinton, Kerry for invading Iraq.”

Read the complete column, “To Bug Or Not To Bug Abu Zubaydah’s Cage (That’s Not The Question).”

Update I (April 24): Some of you have asked about Abu Ghraib. The thesis of the column applies equally to the “GI JOE MEETS GI HO” episode. Get them all on the prosecution of an unjust and illegal war. Incidentally, it goes with out saying that a pox ought to be visited on both Houses—Congress and the Senate.

Update II (April 25): A note to the neoconservatives who frequent this site, and post their ill-formulated fulminations vis-a-vis the war on Iraq: That war is not going to be adjudicated again here, not ever. I chronicled the invasion of Iraq at great length, applying fact and every ounce of reason in my possession to repudiate and denounce that war crime. The case is closed! Neoconservative ideologues stand in the dock for aiding and abetting a war crime. The lazy neoconservative can read my archive on the topic. While I can imagine these ideologues urgently need to make peace with their maker, or consciences, for their role in a crime of such moral and material magnitude, they will not do so on my private property!

Update II: To Bug Or Not To Bug Abu Zubaydah’s Cage (That’s Not The Question)

Iraq, John McCain, Just War, Neoconservatism, Republicans, Terrorism, The Military

The excerpt is from this week’s column,“To Bug Or Not To Bug Abu Zubaydah’s Cage (That’s Not The Question),” now on Taki’s Magazine:

“…torturing the torture issue has thrown the country off-scent, to the great advantage of the puppet masters.

The torture kerfuffle is secondary to – and subsumed within – the broader category of an unjust war, waged by George Bush with Democratic assent. Talk about a bipartisan effort; a pox on both Houses!

You can make the case for harsh interrogation techniques in desperate, dire circumstances. But how on Earth do you justify lugging an army across the ocean to occupy a third-world country that is no danger to you and has not threatened you? You don’t, and you can’t.

Forgotten in the faff over “enhanced interrogation” tactics is the invasion of Iraq. Of this war crime, most Democrats are as guilty as Republicans. The torture fracas is like manna from heaven for both parties and their media lapdogs, who cannot be coaxed out of a coma.

Whether to bug Zubaydah’s cage or not: This is a limited, small, relatively safe distraction that allows complicit journalists, jurists, politicians and pointy heads to skirt the real issue – the need to prosecute Bush, Cheney, Clinton, Kerry for invading Iraq.”

Read the complete column, “To Bug Or Not To Bug Abu Zubaydah’s Cage (That’s Not The Question).”

Update I (April 24): Some of you have asked about Abu Ghraib. The thesis of the column applies equally to the “GI JOE MEETS GI HO” episode. Get them all on the prosecution of an unjust and illegal war. Incidentally, it goes with out saying that a pox ought to be visited on both Houses—Congress and the Senate.

Update II (April 25): A note to the neoconservatives who frequent this site, and post their ill-formulated fulminations vis-a-vis the war on Iraq: That war is not going to be adjudicated again here, not ever. I chronicled the invasion of Iraq at great length, applying fact and every ounce of reason in my possession to repudiate and denounce that war crime. The case is closed! Neoconservative ideologues stand in the dock for aiding and abetting a war crime. The lazy neoconservative can read my archive on the topic. While I can imagine these ideologues urgently need to make peace with their maker, or consciences, for their role in a crime of such moral and material magnitude, they will not do so on my private property!