[AccessD] RE:Tag Line of William Hindman

Heenan, Lambert Lambert.Heenan at AIG.com
Wed Apr 9 13:29:38 CDT 2003


William,

You quote a J.S. Mill comment about war.

"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and
degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is
worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to
fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a
miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so
by the exertions of better men than himself."  John Stuart Mill

Is it to justify the present fiasco? To further put down those people who
did not agree with the US/UK invading Iraq for the reasons their governments
stated? Are you yet another of those who cannot / will not see the
difference between supporting our troops and supporting our government? The
republican masses and mass media - encouraged by their leaders - continue to
perpetuate the false notion that to disagree with the president and the war
is to wish harm to our troops - to be unpatriotic - but any plain thinking
person who can see beyond the blinkers knows this is simply A LIE to foster
discontent come polling time.

It's a shame that you use a quote from a philosopher who was writing in the
context, and within the shores of the greatest single example of imperial
pillage that the world has ever know: the British Empire, who's expansion
was in full swing at the time. It is also ironic as Mill was amongst the
most radically Liberal politicians of his time. Though never a socialist, he
advocated public ownership of natural resources, women's rights, birth
control and universal suffrage  to mention just a few. None of which appear
to be foremost in the minds of the republican administration. There may well
be something more ugly thing than 'the decayed and degraded state of moral
and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war', it could
just be the current USA administration which shows no limit to its
hypocrisy. 

Sorry off the O/T nature of this post, but if we have to read the such out
of context remarks in peoples' tag lines I think they need responding to on
the main list - at least once!

Lambert




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