On Tue, 2 Oct 2001, Duncan Frissell wrote:
If we could do so without stolen money and without collateral damage, would it be moral to invade countries and kill their governments to prevent the oppression of their people?
No, such a policy is nothing more than 'might makes right' and 'mob rule' in the worst sort of way. What makes your 'oppression' any diffrent than theirs? When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security....
That is, since all governments violate people's rights and some violate them more than others, would attacks on governments by outsiders be proper (as internal revolution presumably is)?
That's an assertion not a 'fact'. I look forward to your 'proof'. You might start with Arrow's Impossibility Theorem and work from there. Somebody around here doesn't understand the concept of 'freedom of choice'. It is based around a incorrect understanding of 'citizen' and 'government'. To say 'all government' is abusive is to state in equivalent terms 'all people' are abusive. You make a distinction between 'people' and 'government' that is not warranted by the facts. -- ____________________________________________________________________ The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion. Edmund Burke (1784) The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage@ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------