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September 17, 2013

To adapt the common phrase, “chemical weapons don’t slaughter people, mass murderers slaughter people.”

And the question we face is not whether this or that weapon should be banned, but what should we do about mass murderers,
& the men who do their bidding — the regimes that sustain & can usually replace them should an assassination happen to succeed. This is to look at the whole vexed problem, & not at one corner of it. The question, as I think any mediaeval political philosopher would immediately see, is can we overthrow that regime, at a cost not greater in unwanted consequences? David Warren -- Taking war seriously : Essays in Idleness

Posted by gerardvanderleun at September 17, 2013 11:23 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

Thinking we can and should just go in and wipe out dictators because they do evil deeds is a huge violation of the Treaty of Westphalia which essentially created the civilization we now enjoy.

The treaty essentially established that nations ought not attack other nations for what goes on within their borders. It brought decades of war over religious differences to an end, and this kind of rhetoric is just going to start it up again.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at September 17, 2013 2:06 PM

We really shouldn't send our kids to fight under the tutelage of the Department of Defense.

As the battered guy from the garage said, looking under the hood of my dead car, " I see your problem, right there..."

Posted by: TmjUtah at September 17, 2013 8:40 PM

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