Re: Is it wrong to ....
 

There is no substitute for time. It's needed for your enlightenment. I too was a wise ass prick at 33. I'm still not sure I have it all figured out but I am 100% sure I was 180 degrees off when I was 33. I'm 95% sure you are too.

Re: Is it wrong to ....
 

""moral relativism" = "people don't believe what I do anymore!" "

No. It's more a situation where no one person, one act, one idea, no matter how horrible can be so labled. Someone would be offended and that's not allowed anymore.

I have no problem labling Hitler or Osama as evil. No equivocation. Many can not. Ask Noam Chomsky. He'll find the good side of Osama, perhaps Hitler too. I hope to survive this life without attaining Chomsky's level of 'enlightenment'.

Re: Is it wrong to ....
 

[ QUOTE ]
I have no problem labling Hitler or Osama as evil. No equivocation. Many can not.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can't say Osama is evil. If he truly believes his faith, and truly sees the U.S. as a threat to the precepts of his faith, and truly sees no other military or non-military alternative to combating U.S. dominance, then he resorts to the means available -- namely, terrorism as an instrument of effecting policy change. This doesn't mean I support his cause or even agree with his assessment or his means. In fact, I'm in the military and think pursuit of him is certainly in the best interests of defending our country. But, it's easy to sit behind the world's most powerful military and view anyone who wages war on us using non-conventional means as evil, when in fact they are using the means at hand.

Nuclear warheads: U.S. 3000+, Osama 0
Carrier battle groups: U.S. 12, Osama 0
Armored divisions: U.S. 5, Osama 0
Bombers: U.S. 150, Osama 0

Again, this doesn't mean that I'm pro-Osama, I believe it means I am rational enough to understand the motives and methods of the enemy without resorting to a simple "good vs. evil" mindset.

Now Hitler, that was one evil s.o.b. Of course, there are conditions which helped shape him but his megalomania is a bit more obvious.

Re: Is it wrong to ....
 

If you're American AND plan to stay here AND state "I can't say Osama is evil." then you are the poster CHILD for moral relativism.

Now I'm really done with you.

Re: Is it wrong to ....
 

[ QUOTE ]
If you're American

[/ QUOTE ]What does being an American have to do with morality? I suppose a good argument could be made that by supporting the American government, citizens are participating in immoral behavior, and thus all Americans are immoral.

Re: Is it wrong to ....
 

Context please.

I am catering to the possibility I'm dealing with a Islamic terrorist in training or similar.

If this is just some hip American white boy that got him some fancy college learnin then he's scum.

Re: Is it wrong to ....
 

[ QUOTE ]
If you're American AND plan to stay here AND state "I can't say Osama is evil." then you are the poster CHILD for moral relativism.

Now I'm really done with you.

[/ QUOTE ]

And you're the poster child for emotional rather than rational debate.

Re: Is it wrong to ....
 

[ QUOTE ]
Context please.

I am catering to the possibility I'm dealing with a Islamic terrorist in training or similar.

If this is just some hip American white boy that got him some fancy college learnin then he's scum.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm a major in the US Air Force, as a matter of fact, but because I do not immediately brand my enemy as "evil" and thus my own country as "good", that makes me an Islamic terrorist in training? It is this kind of thinking that continues to, and always has, kept the world in such conflict. And to be perfectly blunt, it is you who sounds like a no-nothing 12-year old boy, so stop playing the "you're a terrorist" card when you can't debate international conflicts intelligently.

Re: Is it wrong to ....
 

[ QUOTE ]
And to be perfectly blunt, it is you who sounds like a no-nothing 12-year old boy, so stop playing the "you're a terrorist" card when you can't debate international conflicts intelligently.

[/ QUOTE ]No, he sounds like a sixty-something trapped in a 1950's mentality.

Re: Is it wrong to ....
 

[ QUOTE ]
There is no substitute for time. It's needed for your enlightenment. I too was a wise ass prick at 33. I'm still not sure I have it all figured out but I am 100% sure I was 180 degrees off when I was 33. I'm 95% sure you are too.

[/ QUOTE ]

This makes no goddamn sense.