In the comments to this post, someone going by the name Planet B left what constitutes the first real dissenting comment on this blog. Since it's the first, I'll go ahead and address it point by point below. I'm sure I won't do nearly as good a job as, say, Misha but I'm going to give it my best shot.
He starts off with:
just ran across your site while googling others. it looks nice but i had to laugh reading this one.
I'm glad you took the time to stop by and thanks for the compliment on the site. I don't know if you were referring to the content, the site design, or both, but it's appreciated. I guess I should also be glad that the post in question provided you some amusement value though, I assure you, it was the last thing I intended that post to do. It was a rant, pure and simple, driven by the rage I felt at those cowards sawing the head off yet another non-combatant.
He continues:
ooooh, EVIL! ugga bugga. apparently you cannot see the evil of George W. Bush and his minions.
I'm actually not blind to certain things that Bush and his administration are doing. My personal jury is still out about the so-called PATRIOT Act, for example (though Democrats must take responsibility for passing it along with Republicans). I've heard good arguments both supporting and opposing it. I agree that there may be potential for abuse, but I've yet to hear of any pattern of same and I do think that the greater cooperation between law-enforcement agencies it enables is probably a good thing. Other things that Bush is doing that I don't like mainly revolve around him growing the size and scope of the federal government like he was a Democrat. Signing McCain-Feingold (presumably hoping, in vain as it turned out, that the SCOTUS would strike it down), and the Medicare drug benefit are two concrete examples of this behavior.
Of course, what you're actually referring to is probably that Bush is the reincarnation of Hitler and we're living in the Fourth Reich. This despite the absence of jackbooted thugs dragging away all who protest the administration and stuffing them in concentration camps, or outright "disappearing" them. Do you really think that a fascist dictator like many on the left imagine Bush to be would allow the kinds of demonstrations that have taken place in cities all over the country ever since the administration started talking about invading Iraq?
May I remind you of the proper name of the Ba'ath party: The Arab National Socialist Party. What other National Socialist Party have you heard of? Yep.
He then goes on to say:
you should know a little history too. the US has been supporting dictatorships (including Hussein) and genocides since the second world war.
This is an old, tired argument. Yes, we did provide some support to Saddam during his war with Iran. The reason for this was because Iran was considered worse than Iraq at the time. It really was a case of choosing the lesser of two evils. Every time the US has supported a dictatorial regime it was to work against an even worse one.
What people who make this argument don't seem to get is that they're effectively saying, "We helped Saddam get where he was, therefore we should have left him alone." Wouldn't it be more reasonable to say, "We made a mistake and it's up to us to correct it?" I mean, if I screw up and spill dangerous chemicals on my property, isn't it my responsibility to clean them up before they get into the water supply? Or do I say, "Well, it's my fault but I'm not going to do anything about it; it's someone else's problem," and then go into my house while the lawn dies, then the trees, then me and my neighbors?
He concludes:
one beheading (or even three or a hundred) doesn't alleviate our own complicity in the evil of the world.
Assuming that we are, as you say, complicit in the evil of the world, then I agree. But that isn't the point. The point is that these people (and I use the term loosely) committed atrocities and will continue to do so if left unchecked. Do we let them do so just because we have done bad things ourselves at some point in the past?
I shouldn't have to bring this up, but I'm gonna anyway. You see the US as complicit in the evil in the world. You forget that the US is responsible for helping to defeat two of the greatest evils this world has ever known: imperial Fascism and imperial Communism. And we're working on the third. We have provided more in foreign aid to other countries than any other nation; it would not surprise me if it were more than all other nations combined. The advances in medicine and technology that have come from this country have greatly benefited the entire world. I defy you to say that we have done no good, or even that our good does not outweigh any bad. Does doing good excuse having done evil? No, but having done evil does not invalidate the good either.
Unsurprisingly, Planet B did not leave an email address or URL. If he, or she, reads this and would like to continue the discussion, then by all means I'd be happy to do so.
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