Quote
No matter how you feel about the guy, this statement will be remembered.
“The essence of civilization is that the strong have a duty to protect the weak. In cases where there are serious doubts and questions the presumption should be in the favor of life.”
-George Bush
I agree.
originally posted here
posted by Kathy at 1:54 PM
6 Comments:
The strong have a duty to protect the weak from what? A lack of democracy?
Also, I won't take lectures on respecting life from a warmonger, I just won't do it.
Consider the source, Kathy!
12:46 PM
One other thing: please define "serious doubts."
12:46 PM
One other thing: please define "serious doubts." Do 21 consecutive court cases with the same outcome qualify as serious doubts?
12:47 PM
Duf,
That's exactly what I meant NOT to do. "Consider the source." You are putting in context of the era in which it was delivered.
Take it out of that for a minute.
What if Pres. Kennedy had said it? Would you agree with it then?
1:11 PM
But context really matters. The statement, if made while announcing why we are not going to war would mean something completely different than it does in the context of ignoring the wishes of a woman who's medical condition has only deteriorated for 15 years. One must also consider the unanimous ruling of every court that has heard the case. The statement itself means nothing BECAUSE of who said it. You site JFK. Fine. Now imagine that Stalin said it - the statement come across less as truth and more as hypocrisy. Just as it does here.
12:52 PM
Duf, Duf, Duf. Pause your dislike of GWB for a moment. You disagree with war in general and that is alright, but consider the result ten, twenty, thirty years hence. A free democracy in the Middle East, women with actual rights for the first time in their lives, a vicious tyrant de-fanged and dis-empowered, a domino effect of democracy spreading throughout the Arab world. Maybe it won't happen, but it would never have a chance of happening had we not removed the Taliban and Saddam.
What do you suppose JFK meant when he said in his inaugural address, "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."? Do you not think that includes military force?
The end of WW2 saw the atomic bomb used. The justification was that ultimately it saved more lives, Japanese as well as American, than it cost. The same justification is fitting in the present conflict.
9:02 PM
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