Thread:Comments:ARM: 2010 worst year for Afghanistan since US invasion/Comments from feedback form - "Gee Whizz...war is violent - w..."/reply (7)

It is odd that you make an implicit assumption that I advocate folding for any reason that we have discussed. It is not my belief that folding is a good option to pursue, however, we do need to be aware of how our actions can increase the intensity of the action against or defuse it.

The point that I intended to make is that ridiculing someone, such as ARM, demonstrates that we are not as committed to the principles of free speech and free marketplace of ideas. The very discussion we have had on this forum would be a better reflection that principle and all those others for which we and/or the Taliban are fighting over.

It also seems odd that you seek to hold responsible many of these civilians for the actions of twenty or thirty killers in the World Trade Center operation. To somehow say that it is okay to randomly kill people because the other guy did is a slippery slope to the same kind of fanatical devotion to some sort of destructive belief that you accuse the Taliban of.

The very doublethink inherent in that is the very doublethink that allows someone to attack the Twin Towers and call it a military strike. Rashid the goatherd may be a military target, but treat the collateral damage of his death as a minor oops devalues life as much as flying a jumbo jet into a skyscraper.

It may be that my point has not been very well made in these postings back and forth. However, I believe the basic premise still comes through. Thank you for a fine discussion.