Tuesday, January 24, 2006
In which I defend an anti-war position against QandO
This post by McQ centers on the following question:
Consider McQ's logic applied to another subject on which I am certain he feels differently and formed into an apparently equivalent logical conundrum:
As most people I know who are against the Iraq war at least accept the use of the military for purely defensive wars, then it can be perfectly consistent for them to oppose the war on moral grounds, yet support the instrument (the military) - they wish to preserve the instrument for some possible future activity (such as a defensive war) which they would deem the use of the instrument as morally justified.
Update
After a little back and forth in the comments on QandO, I believe McQ meant
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How can one claim to be against the war for moral reasons and yet be for the instrument of the war?McQ's believes that the two claims present a logical impossibility. I disagree.
Consider McQ's logic applied to another subject on which I am certain he feels differently and formed into an apparently equivalent logical conundrum:
How can one claim to be against murder for moral reasons and yet be for the instruments of murder (guns)?Personally, I'm for the war (in Iraq - the war in question), for the troops, against murder, and for guns. But then I don't see why there should be any logical difficulty in separating the instrument from the activity. To make the logic work, the only assumption required is that there exists some other activity you support for which the instrument would be moral and useful.
As most people I know who are against the Iraq war at least accept the use of the military for purely defensive wars, then it can be perfectly consistent for them to oppose the war on moral grounds, yet support the instrument (the military) - they wish to preserve the instrument for some possible future activity (such as a defensive war) which they would deem the use of the instrument as morally justified.
Update
After a little back and forth in the comments on QandO, I believe McQ meant
How can one claim to be against the war for moral reasons and yet be for the executors of the war?which is indeed logically problematic.
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