The keyboard is mightier than the machine gun... The political, philosophical and general outpourings of a troubled soul living in Australia and blogging his Vietnam veteran's head off.
Nothing in this blog can be believed. If you think that anything in this blog is true or factual, you'll need to verify it from another source. Do you understand? No? Then read it again, and repeat this process, until you understand that you cannot sue me for anything you read here. Also, having been sucked into taking part in the mass-murder of more than 3 million Vietnamese people on behalf of U.S. Big Business "interests", I'm as mad as a cut snake (and broke) so it might be a bit silly to try to sue me anyway...
posted by The Editor at
9:28 AM
The counter shown below displays the number of Israeli military personnel refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories. I applaud their integrity and their strength of character. To me they are heroes of peace and humanity.
9 Comments:
As one of my staff regularly says to me, "words are cheap Phil."
Mind you I don't get it so often now, so I must have stopped bullshitting as much as I did previously.
Some others are paid to do it.
I didn't go there, Gerry, I'll wait for your views.
Phil, your choice to not voice an opinion is respected, but I do wish people would stop pussyfooting around this sort of topic.
A flaw in what you just said is that it implies that only veterans could have valid opinions on Obama's speech. That takes us close to the argument that only veterans should opine about war.
I suggest that this is sophistry. Dangerous sophistry.
It is the sort of sophistry that never questions the wars we have fought in, and paves the way for the official propaganda to stand unchallenged, i.e. that all wars we have fought in were good, just, and necessary wars.
I further suggest that it paves the way for future generations of well-meaning sign-ups to be sent to stupid wars ad infinitum.
I'd rather take the risk of offending veterans' feelings than let my silence give tacit approval to the patriotic claptrap that gets millions killed for the dodgiest of reasons.
Dear Lord, was there a schlock button he didn't press? No wonder he got to be president.
However, his central thesis that we should honour the warriors and their sacrifice no matter whether the war itself was just or not accords with my own thinking. If you want to blame the soldiers for the war then you must give them the freedom to refuse to participate. I can't see that happening any time soon.
On the other hand, if a war is unjust, everybody should stand up and say so. Obama managed to allude to that idea without ever once saying it; his problem is that the USA has never admitted to a foreign policy mistake and never will. The American zeitgeist is that whatever they do is God's will and therefore correct.
I dont doubt for a moment that he that is Obama concocted this speech.
Vest, I think you are using 'concoct' in an unusual way. Of course Obama is the author of this speech; nobody else has his sense of oratory. But I suspect you mean something else; can you amplify?
Yeah OK then.
AndrewM's last para - appeals to God always do it for me, and this from a country that hates Islam for what its preachers preach. World class hypocracy.
I guess everyone expected more - or different - from Obama, and that didn't eventuate.
Politicians rarely write speeches, most dont have the time to spare from their other important activities such as black tie junkets and extra marital boudoir romps.
Vest, you said "Politicians rarely write speeches". True. But they are the ones who spend hours rehearsing their delivery. They are the ones uttering the statements. Therefore they are the ones responsible for ensuring their speech's integrity. And they can and should be held to account.
Quote of the Earl of Birkenhead early 20th century.
[Of Winston Churchill] He has devoted the best years of his life to preparing impromptu speeches.
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