The Back Alley Archives

Graphic video below. But if you support the troops one you need to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0#

Woohoo!!1! God bless America!1!! Love the troops, keep killing people like it's a video game!!1!1!

Man, in any group of people of several hundred thousand folks there will be bad apples. IMO in this case, you have some bad intel (guns or cameras) that leads to a choice of engagement. If you believe the intel then you shoot to kill and don't stop until you're sure it's done. Was this a mistake, sure, avoidable, maybe. On the other hand being in Iraq in the middle of a war is going to be dangerous period.
I know lots of folks in uniform and I guarantee you none of them would shoot someone knowing they were carrying a camera and I don't think anyone in the video above would have either.

Having just thought another second I thought I'd add, if any of these guys had said anything to the effect that they aren't guns but shoot 'em anyway, well then I'd be right there with you.

And that's the problem with legalizing the use of force by a select group of people: it allows us all to rationalize murder.

So we should have no military?

Of course not.

So defense of the nation is the responsibility of each individual? Not that I'm one to trust the gov't and I often agree with your skepticism of it, but how is the nation to defend itself? I don't see this as a State's militia issue cause then you've just transferred the power to 50 different powers and somehow I don't see this being any more to your liking. While I might disagree with how a lot of our tax dollars are spent the military isn't one of those things. Don't get me wrong, there is a TON of waste in big gov't and big military but spending on the premise of it is one of the few things that I think our tax dollars should be spent on.

I don't believe the nation should exist so I see no justification to protect it. I can understand where you're coming from because I used to be a minarchist. But, morally and logically speaking, I simply cannot find any real justification for why a small group of people should be given the legal right to initiate force against everyone else. There is no justification for government that I can find that satisfies my need to understand the truth of what I support. Most folks will say "We need it", but to me, need has no bearing on right and wrong. There are certain foundational principles that exist outside of any utility or necessity that exist in the real world and giving up those principles devolves immediately into a worthless moral relativism.

You ever encounter someone with whom you agree on somethings and disagree on others, yet on your disagreements you can have a rational and logical (if disagreeable) conversation?

Ever meet someone who is just so far beyond your sense of rationality and sanity that you don't want to even further waste your time trying to discuss things or even seeing their point of view?

I think I reached that point with AA today with this line:

I don't believe the nation should exist

:washhands: I'm done.

Would it help if I said that I also don't believe any nation (or State in general) should exist?

Not really.

So voluntaryism is so disgusting to you that you can't even consider its premises?

Yes, I know the link is from a Socialist website, but it is an interesting story:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/apr2010/emcc-a28.shtml

It is an interview with one of the soldiers in the WikiLeaks video.

Faster please.