I put you in a list with MikeyG. "you (MikeyG), boorite" That indicates you are two seperate items. Is that enough or do I need to cite some sources that define the nature of a list? Here's another example of a list: apples; oranges; bananas. Note this does not say apples = oranges = bananas. A common rookie mistake! Moving on..
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Now to recap the reasons for war argument, since you keep saying you've addressed it. I would like to explore how you addressed it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but your "reason" was "Saddam was a threat."
I said Saddam was a potential threat. If he were a provable threat there would be no ambiguity about the cause to go to war.
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I said he wasn't, so we quibbled for a while about how much of a threat he was. Much of the factual basis (such as it was) of your argument was false, and much of the rest showed a profound ignorance of the democratic institutions you "paradoxically" want to impose on the world. If you enjoy the pain of seeing your own bullshit statements rebutted in writing again and again, I'll be happy to oblige, but I think readers here can just as well hit the back button.
You you say my statements are false and I am ignorant. Weren't you the one clamouring for hard facts? This sounds like baseless opinion to me.
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One of the few true things you said, which is this common knowledge you keep referring to, is that Iraq invaded Kuwait over a decade ago. Your notion that this constitutes a threat to his neighbors now, such that invasion was necessary, was quickly demolished, and you abandoned it. Just let me know if you'd like to raise it again.
So I don't misunderstand you, are you arguing that Saddam added to the stability of the Middle East? Because I believe he most certainly did not.
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Anyway, all that stuff about "threat" became pretty much beside the point when you departed from any sane legal definition of "threat" and presented an astonishing new concept of "evidence." You said:
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And my point is that Iraq was capable, and a probable user of an anoymous or proxy terrorist attack against us. Again, you are judging Iraq by old standards.... you can't prove someone is about to covertly attack you.
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So I said: "So we are permitted to invade any country that is hypothetically capable of carrying out a terrorist attack, as long as we imagine that they are willing to do so." And I think you pretty much said yes, that's about right. Let me know if you actually meant to disagree with that statement, and if so, how.
And you think I said yes, that's about right? I don't think I said that. Why is it you can quote me exactly on one thing, but then you have to imagine a response that fits into your argument elsewhere?
Note the term "probable" in my quote. I don't say "if we imagine they will launch an attack against us," I said if it is probable they might do so. The Saddam regime has hostile to us and launched a military invasion of a neighboring country. I think that makes them a probable threat.
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Anyway, this struck me as such a plain abuse of words like "reason" and "evidence" that I thought to myself, well this guy pretty much just declared himself a lunatic in public, and I dropped it.
This is still more editorializing. What are you writing an autobiography or something?
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Well it came up again in the other thread, where I pointed out the Orwellian contradiction in your concept of ignoring our own laws in order to govern ourselves, or subverting our democratic forms to service our democracy. You call it a paradox. I call it doublethink. That you continue so proudly to call it reason is the mark of a real nutjob. I mean, just about anyone can see that it's crazy.
I never suggested we subvert our own democracy. I said we don't have to behave like the international community is a democracy when all of the elements making it up are not democratic bodies. Maybe you just keep subconsciously blocking this out because you can't argue against it.
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You also refuse to answer questions such as, how is the UN Charter "undermining our own ability to govern ourselves?" You said something about "security" (although it is clear that this war has increased the likelihood of terrorist attacks) against "threats" (which by your definition may be real or imagined). So what I want to know is, how is decreasing our security by responding to a threat that may be imaginary-- how can this possibly justify throwing out the supreme law of the land? Nutty.
I put this in the context of the international community trying to stop us from invading Iraq through the U.N.
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And you said Bush was not authoritarian but refused to answer: "Then what do you call it when the officials of a country are not accountable to democratic forms and laws? Democracy?" What do you call it, Makk? I can't wait to hear another twisted abortion of "reason" spew forth.
I guess you are implying the officials of our country are not accountable to our laws? I think they are. Tell me what United States laws they are now not accountable for in respect to the war and then I can craft a better response.
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And stop calling me MikeyG because you know it's a lie.
Here, along with several other places in your post, I don't know what you are talking about.
Me thinks you protest too much.
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Vote Jeb Bush 2008