12-16-2005, 11:35 PM
Jester,Dec 14 2005, 12:41 PM Wrote:"There was no lie, there was a communication of the worst case scenario."
Rephrasing "worst case scenario" intelligence as fact is *lying*.
Doing so to drum up support for an illegal war is downright criminal.
http://billmon.org/archives/000172.html
-Jester
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In fact, it's just the kind of 'truth' formation and 'truth' obfuscation that Pinder is talking about in his Nobel address. Going to war under false pretences is okay because the good people of America and the ideals that make them better than the infidel were at risk. The American dream is worth saving from the infidel because it is 'true'. No need to properly justify the taking of thousands of lives in advance - pre-emptive war on the basis of extremely shoddy risk assessment (among other things...) can always be justified after the fact because "what we believe is true, what they believe is false, and evil." Shades of grey are for academics - the world of black and white plays into the hands of power much more usefully.
Securing a strategically important region (read: oil-rich and unstable) out of entirely realist motives is only okay in the public's eyes if it is ostensibly carried out in the name of moral 'truth'. The correspondent truth of the situation, the reality of the situation, is obscured by the self-righteous moral 'truth' that is sold to the people as complacency-inducing war-bait. I'm not sure why so many folks here have a problem with Pinder's assertions about 'truth'. It's pretty clear that societal notions of what is morally 'true' are often used to justify acts that, in reality, violate the same code by which they are superficially justified. Once he puts it to use in his polemic, it seems to be more of an epistemological than a metaphysical point, and one with which I am inclined to agree.
But whate'er I be,
Nor I, nor any man that is,
With nothing shall be pleased till he be eased
With being nothing.
William Shakespeare - Richard II
Nor I, nor any man that is,
With nothing shall be pleased till he be eased
With being nothing.
William Shakespeare - Richard II