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Tag Archives: war
Fisking Sullivan
I have been watching the Palin obsession on Andrew Sullivan’s blog with a kind of fascinated horror. The blog was suspended to digest the almost content-free Palin book, but from the resumption notice it is clear that others have been raising their concerns.
No doubt It is part of the theatre, one of the many reasons, [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged Afghanistan, blogging, ethics, peace, philosophy, Robert Fisk 1 Comment
Our Great Passion for War
The confluence of the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the taking down of the Berlin Wall, Obama’s ongoing deliberations on whether or not to escalate in Afghanistan and Remembrance Day, with the passing of the last of the Great War veterans, has made for an unusually rich reflection on the value and/or futility or [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged Afghanistan, foreign policy realism, Karl Eikenberry, military spending, rationalism, Robert Fisk, Scott Ritter, sentimentalism 2 Comments
The Horror
The opening of the New York Times editorial on Saturday made little sense.
It is always a shock — and a cause for deep sadness — when a gunman fires malevolently at crowds of innocent people. We have seen it far too often: at Columbine High School in Colorado a decade ago; on the campus of [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged Afganistan, ethics, massacre, New York Times, peace, philosophy Leave a comment
Ritter on Obama
In the earlier article on Afghanistan I quoted Ritter’s ‘fierce’ analysis of the situation facing President Obama. It is also remarkable for a fierce judgement of Obama (quoted below) should he ignore his Vice President and escalate the US commitment by agreeing to McChrytal’s request for 40,000 extra soldiers. Such clarity in ethical matters [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged Afghanistan, ethics, Jane Austen, philosophy, rationalism, Scott Ritter Leave a comment
Williams on the Ethics of War
Henry at Crooked Timber notes how even centrists are contributing to the shouting match that makes up so much of our contemporary intellectual public discourse, pointing out that a little self-knowledge wouldn’t go amiss where one centrist is concerned. Having my head in Mansfield Park at the moment, I could help adding that some more [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged ethics, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, philosophy, Rowan Williams Leave a comment
Just War Concern Trolling
Austen Ivereigh has posted an article at The Gurdian CiF arguing that Catholics can’t be pacifists, finishing:
That is why Catholic teaching on war and peace is nowadays a combination of just war elements and a strong emphasis on nonviolence. In 1993 the US Catholic bishops summarised it like this: “1) In situations of conflict, our [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged Catholocism, ethics, Jane Austen, just war theory, pacifism, philosophy, rationalism, self-knowledge Leave a comment
Mansfield Park, The Slave Trade & Iran
The slave trade subtext Mansfield Park were hardly accidental, Austen surely suggesting that the ethical ideas she was exploring in a family setting could be framed by the slavery question (to what extent is ‘absolute authority’ ever just or wise) but also the ethical drama of the family had a bearing on wider issues such [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged ethics, GCC, Iran, Israel, Jane Austen, oil, philosophy, slavery Leave a comment
Iran
I didn’t expect to be blogging on this. I watched in disbelief as the public was manipulated into the Iraq war in 2002 and blogged intensively on the standoff with Iran over its nuclear programme in 2006/7 until the 16 US intelligence agencies unanimously signed off on the remarkable 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged Enlightenment, ethics, Iran, NPT, nuclear, philosophy, politics, sentimentalism Leave a comment
They Just Don’t Get It