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Originally Posted by roachboy
...i reiterate my basic challenge to folk who support the war to spell out their positions in the kind of way that they have tried to pressure those of us who opposed and oppose this war to do.
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The problem I have is that I wasn't one of the war supporters who tried to place pressure on people like you, Host, and others who were against it. I can totally understand why you didn't want us in Iraq, just as I can totally understand why - after discovering that there were no WMD's in Iraq - you'd be angry and distrustful of the Bush Administration. I hold a different line of reasoning for the war that, when it became expedient to do so, the Administration picked up on...Regime Change.
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as for the matter of politics being a question of belief--well, most beliefs are rooted in some kind of contact with a world beyond them. so are convictions. both are amenable to testing--i expect that you, like anyone, indulges testing all the time. if you use either belief or conviction as a device to make all political argument arbitrary, and if this reflects a wider pattern (and i believe it does) then we are all in a pretty sorry state of affairs in which nothing can be refuted by recourse to either evidence or argument: when that goes out the window, so does even the slightest pretense to democratic process. but maybe you prefer abandoning even those faint traces of democracy that still float about in the american system. for myself, i think the consequences of it are too high.
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As I read this second paragraph, I can't help but think that you have overdone the hyperbole. I'll say this - I don't believe that arguing - especially in a setting like this - will result in a change in anyone's opinion. BUT, I do HOPE that, when exposed to differing opinions, along with credible resources to back them up, a person can at least reach a level of understanding of that viewpoint, and perhaps eventually come to a mutually agreeable mid-point.
Your statement regarding the "faint traces of democracy that still float about in the american system"...were you serious? Do you honestly believe that democracy is all but eliminated from the American system of governance? Call me naive, but I hope to not ever reach that level of cynicism. Of course, I've been involved in local politics, as well as state politics to a degree, for over 10 years now. It's not a perfect system, but it seems to be working at our local levels at least. I can understand such cynicism as we talk about upper level state and national politics.