Logical Lightweights Love Lies

Genial23 via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

Arthur Silber, who I am so happy to see blogging again, nails the chickenhawks and warmongers.  Again:

In their own warmongering minds, the worst smear that many supporters of the invasion and occupation of Iraq can come up with, even now, is: “Oh, so you’d really prefer that Saddam were back in power, is that it? Why, you’re a…a…a Saddamite!” They’ve had over three years to come up with better and more effective smears, and this is still all they’ve got. It is a measure of the bankruptcy of their arguments (I use the term loosely), and the vast arid stretches of their intellects.

For those who may have joined this discussion late, I will note only that this is a classic false alternative: either you support a war and occupation of aggression, contrary to all fundamental moral and legal principles, or you support a vicious dictator. Well, pardon me — and pardon the rules of logic — but no, for one starkly obvious reason: unless Iraq had been a genuine, serious, demonstrable threat to the United States, it was and is not our government’s business. This is not a complicated point. One would think even simple warmongers might grasp it. Saddam was a vicious, brutal, murderous thug — and it was not our government’s business. He was no threat to us. Not our business.

Exactly.  But then those who cheerlead for war, while refusing to risk their own life and limb for the oh-so-necessary-war-with-the-Islamo-fascists, have never been big on logic and intellectual excercise.

It is, and always has been, about the quick soundbite and hyper-emotional, panic-stricken rush to “do something.”

Unfortunately, they aren’t the ones bleeding and dying for their mistakes.  It is other people’s kids, mothers and fathers who have been paying that price and will continue to suffer for years to come.