Political Correctness Can Kill

Great column Will. How can we stop war escalation madness, it seems nobody is listening?

By writing op-eds! I wish.

I agree that the political correctness of the right serves to sanitize war - to eliminate the very conditions upon which we base our assertions that soldiers make sacrifices for their country.

When I think about why I would probably be complicit in clapping, it's probably not because I am a little girl (or stuck on an airplane) so much as there are appropriate forums for voicing these opinions. That's the difference between an op-ed, academic forums, etc and picketing funerals, you know?

Excellent and very brave post Will.

Read Paul Graham for another essay on the dangers of political correctness.
http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html

No time to get an oped published, but at least I featured you on my blog today http://bit.ly/8ho5gJ, and then quoted you again on www.politico.com/arena

Thanks Bill!

I think the alternative to clapping in such circumstances is to think of the people who have died, and the unknown number of people who will be killed in the future by cheap displays of easy patriotism. Closing your eyes and bowing your head slightly is probably appropriate.

If your neighbor prods you with a "hey, don't you support our troops," you can truthfully state, "I was thinking of the soldiers who died so far from their homes and family."

Will says

"Hadn’t we known for years that the war was predicated on misinformation?"

AND (even worse)

"Our troops, in turn, have killed tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis who did nothing to any of us."

So the entire premise of Will's column is false -- or at best misleading. Because the first statement is in fact false (if we are talking about Afghanistan) or misleading (if we are talking about Saddam -- the issue with Iraq is always just how dangerous Saddam was to American interests, not that he was some sort of benign actor in the Middle-East who leave us alone as long as we respected his soverign rule over Iraq).

But worse is the other statement I quoted, which is not an example of speaking "truth to power" or whatever else Will thinks he is doing, but just plain lying. Our troops did not kill (meaning directly bomb or shoot innocent Iraqis) in the numbers Will is talking about. In war innocent people die and Iraq is no different, but the folks who have done most of the killing in Iraq are Islamic fanatics and friends of Saddam. Period.

So when Will can find a different example of PC on the right, I'll take him seriously.

Will says

"Hadn’t we known for years that the war was predicated on misinformation?"

AND (even worse)

"Our troops, in turn, have killed tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis who did nothing to any of us."

So the entire premise of Will's column is false -- or at best misleading. Because the first statement is in fact false (if we are talking about Afghanistan) or misleading (if we are talking about Saddam -- the issue with Iraq is always just how dangerous Saddam was to American interests, not that he was some sort of benign actor in the Middle-East who leave us alone as long as we respected his soverign rule over Iraq).

But worse is the other statement I quoted, which is not an example of speaking "truth to power" or whatever else Will thinks he is doing, but just plain lying. Our troops did not kill (meaning directly bomb or shoot innocent Iraqis) in the numbers Will is talking about. In war innocent people die and Iraq is no different, but the folks who have done most of the killing in Iraq are Islamic fanatics and friends of Saddam. Period.

So when Will can find a different example of PC on the right, I'll take him seriously.

Will says

"Hadn’t we known for years that the war was predicated on misinformation?"

AND (even worse)

"Our troops, in turn, have killed tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis who did nothing to any of us."

So the entire premise of Will's column is false -- or at best misleading. Because the first statement is in fact false (if we are talking about Afghanistan) or misleading (if we are talking about Saddam -- the issue with Iraq is always just how dangerous Saddam was to American interests, not that he was some sort of benign actor in the Middle-East who leave us alone as long as we respected his soverign rule over Iraq).

But worse is the other statement I quoted, which is not an example of speaking "truth to power" or whatever else Will thinks he is doing, but just plain lying. Our troops did not kill (meaning directly bomb or shoot innocent Iraqis) in the numbers Will is talking about. In war innocent people die and Iraq is no different, but the folks who have done most of the killing in Iraq are Islamic fanatics and friends of Saddam. Period.

So when Will can find a different example of PC on the right, I'll take him seriously.

Sorry about the multiple posts -- I was having computer problems.