[Captain Walker]

International law” has never been set in stone. It’s a shadowy mishmash of vaguely good intentions forever in a fluid state, changing in accordance with the whims of the various nations and societies who purport to agree with it and claim to live by it; despite what attorneys, moralizers, and social engineers yearn for, it’s honored more in the breach than in the observance. Nations large and small cling to it when it suits them, level accusations of violations against adversaries when it suits them, and plead reasons of state when it suits them to ignore it.

Anyone from Pope John Paul II to Donald Trump to the millions of people who were publicly stating that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a Very Stupid Thing to Do are all too familiar with these lines.

But the truth of these words does nothing to deny the existence of a Natural Law we are obliged to follow.

[schurmann]

“...Anyone from Pope John Paul II to Donald Trump to the millions of people who were publicly stating that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a Very Stupid Thing to Do are all too familiar with these lines.
But the truth of these words does nothing to deny the existence of a Natural Law we are obliged to follow.” [Captain Walker, post 186]

Anybody who uses leading capitals (Very Stupid Thing, Natural Law) is arguing from authority. Such arguments have no place in a discussion of reality. Long-distance psychologizing via chatboard post is an iffy thing, but my experience indicates that those who resort such arguments are more interested in bludgeoning or frightening the rest of us into submission, than they are in any meaningful analysis of the real situation.