DrewDad wrote:Brandon9000 wrote:Fist of all, I'd like to remind you that Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who ruled with an iron first, and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, not to mention his routine use of torture.
This has nothing to do with the propriety of the war in Iraq. Red herring.
I never claimed it had anything to do with the propriety of the war in Iraq. My point was that the Iraqi couple she knows were hardly living in a paradise before the war, in Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
DrewDad wrote:Brandon9000 wrote:People have been starting wars for the entire history of the human race, so the idea that war is some bad idea that President Bush invented is silly. The mere fact that he initiated a war and there are civilian deaths in the war does not show that he has acted improperly, since it does not differentiate him from any of the immense number of rulers in recent history who started a war. In fact, historically, wars have usually been initiated merely because the initiating country thought it could benefit in some way.
This is an appeal to tradition, which is a classic fallacy. If tradition were the best way to choose courses of action, we'd all be eating grubs from under rotted logs.
I never claimed that the prevalence of wars in human history justified this war. My point was that Mr. Bush's behavior in starting this war is not remotely unusual, and, therefore, he cannot be subject to some special criticism for it, as though the mere act of starting a war were some unusal invention of his.
DrewDad wrote:Brandon9000 wrote:Your idea that the President lied to start the war is unproven, and, I believe false. He correctly stated that the probability that Iraq was still hiding its WMD and programs was unacceptably high and had to be resolved. Had Iraq been doing so, a million people could have died should those weapons have been used.
This is not a compelling argument, either.
There is evidence that the President misled the country about the nature, size, and immediacy of the threat. Until you have hard numbers on all of this, then it is simply smoke and mirrors.
You have done nothing whatever to refute my first assertion that there is little or no evidence that the president justifed the invasion with lies.
Furthermore, it is not smoke and mirrors to state correctly that there was a very strong motivation to invade Iraq to save the colossal number of lives that might have been lost if Iraq had been continuing to hide its WMD and WMD development programs as previously. Even a moderate chance of Saddam Hussein going nuclear (or devloping bioweapons) had to be taken as a grave potential danger. Furthermore, the next time a country like Hussein's Iraq pursues WMD, we need to act in just the same way. I expect this to happen frequently in the future.
DrewDad wrote:Brandon9000 wrote:In the end, your statement that he must be bad because you don't like his appearance or manner is the sort of criticism anyone could level at anyone, and proves nothing.
Did she indicate otherwise? She stated that his personal demeanor affects the level of trust which she instills in him. This is a perfectly human characteristic, and is likely one that you share. Your criticism of Montana lacks any weight, whatsoever.
So you say. I wanted to make it clear that her criticism of his personal demeanor and style is the type of criticism that one can level at anyone, and lacks any weight whatsoever.