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More Words on the War

…anyone who is 100% sure of the morality of their position with regard to the war in Iraq probably hasn’t understood the issues involved. Be prepared to have your mind changed. Remain open to new ideas. Protest / Advocate only what you really believe to be true…

Smart words here from Tom Coates. (Although personally I’d replace ‘believe’ with ‘know’.)

I mentioned a few days ago that I still don’t know the whole story, and as every day passes I learn a little more. At this point, the only thing one can truly affirm is the confusion of the situation. There is no clean and neat binary opposition. There is nothing clear cut. There is no black and white. Even the moral position is clouded by uncertainty.

One one hand, it cannot be denied that the Iraqi people—particularly those on the periphery, as evident from the beginning of the Allied incursion—are more than happy to be free from Hussein’s opression. On the other, is this undoubtedly favourable end truly worth the sometimes excessively forceful means used to achieve it? Can these two valid yet opposing standpoints be reconciled? And is the question even as simple as that?

Maybe this is a question that can never have an answer, but that’s not to say we shouldn’t continue searching for one.

Sun 23 Mar 2003 at 17:24   ·


Comments (2 responses)

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Posted by Griet
Mon 24 Mar 2003
at 18:13

who says the ending will be favourable? That all depends on who will be president instead of Sadam, how many Iraqis were killed, if they’ll even have food and how the Iraqi youth will react to all of this… will they be filled with hatred or not? Will Osama be having a field day or … aaaagh. i’m shutting up. Ignore me.

Posted by Mac
Mon 24 Mar 2003
at 18:48

I don’t think you totally got what I’m saying here. By ‘end’ I mean any potential concluding scenario. By ‘favourable end’ I mean the ending of Hussein’s rule. I didn’t say that what actually happens when this is all over, whatever it may be, will be favourable.

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This is the personal website of MacDara Conroy, a twenty-something journalist, editor and all-round creative type living in Dublin, Ireland.
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You are reading More Words on the War, a Macrolog entry by MacDara Conroy. It is filed under Current Affairs, and was published in March 2003.

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