[633] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: dartmouth, but not free speech
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Presley H Cannady)
Sat May 12 19:21:39 2001
Message-Id: <200105122321.TAA25462@w20-575-98.mit.edu>
To: "Aram Harrow" <aram@MIT.EDU>
cc: mit-talk@MIT.EDU, revprez@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sat, 12 May 2001 18:01:56 EDT."
<200105122201.SAA01479@mint-square.mit.edu>
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Date: Sat, 12 May 2001 19:21:24 -0400
From: Presley H Cannady <revprez@MIT.EDU>
>
> how many of you have made jokes in private settings that would be
> utterly humiliating to have repeated in public? this is why it is
> poor form to forward private email to mailing lists without
> permission, though i will say that you should all ask rev prez if he'd
> rather stub his toe or have thousands of foreigners put to death.
It's also a good reason why private email is useful in
dispelling misconceptions. I won't do that here, but
the bulk of our discussion revolved around our different
value systems for employing military force to resolve
different situations. I clearly stated that the national
interest must lie behind any attempt to deploy the
military less you risk failure in its mission and more
importantly dispatch young Americans to die for a
cause the nation does not support. It is the the worse
tragedy imaginable, much worse to our nation than the
deaths of people thousands of miles away in any number.
I find it morally reprehensible that anyone participate
in the calculus of the value of life. Colin Powell speaks
clearly on this point in his biography, describing his
outburst when Madeline Albright wondered aloud why
did America have all this military might if we don't intend
to use it? At that moment, Albright -- probably because
of her whoring around the UN -- diminished her character
to that of a third world dictator: people who saw those
who defended their country as pawns instead of people
willing to serve in a sacred pact. You simply do not
send our people overseas without a clear mission and the
support of the national interest. You do not fight
battles you can't win and you do not shed our blood to
have our people come home and have their countrymen
spit in their face. There are moral reasons for this, but
there are practical reasons as well. Throughout history,
we've demonstrated that a nation stable and free from any
military coup relies on a nation willing to support its
military and feed into its ranks with the blood and sweat of
its own. The day we model ourselves after Pakistan or
a number of other nations who build professional militaries
backed by unthinking conscripts is the day we risk making
the military a political force NO ONE can contend with. Nobody
understands this better than the American soldier, sailor,
Marine and airman. It's not hard to go from fighting for the
ideals of your nation to fighting for those who like you
best -- your buddies. Once the military as an institution
commands more loyalty from its ranks than the nation as a
whole, you end up with a dangerous situation.
Liberals seem not to forget this every time we enter the
seven years of plenty. Feeling their oats, they gamble the
lives of Americans in ventures that serve no interest
whatsoever, disillusion the force and reduce morality.
Even worse, they use fuzzy math and draw false value
judgments regarding the lives of foreigners and the lives
of American servicemen. Once you look past the absurd
lack of responsibility of this view, you can't help but
despise the lack of character of those who apply such calculus;
the lack of integrity, loyalty and ultimately humanity of
people who would dare try and weigh the lives of other people
in place of their own. If you're willing to die for
Rwandans, then go ahead. Start a merc agency and go fight
your war on behalf of the people. Hell, you might become
the next Vladimer Illych Lenin. You will undoubtedly come
to the same bad end, but at least you'll have satisfied whatever
drives your conscience. Don't drag the rest of America into
a bush war against an entrenched guerilla force for no reason.
We can win, but why would we want to fight in the first place?
Rev Prez
