Just One Question For Opponents Of The War (Dennis Prager On Fighting Evil People In Iraq Alert)

Townhall.com ^ | 08/30/05 | Dennis Prager

[goldstategop]

All those who support the American war in Iraq should make a deal with anyone opposed to the war. Offer to answer any 20 questions the opponents wish to ask if they will answer just one:

Do you believe we are fighting evil people in Iraq?

That is how supporters of the war regard the Baathists and the Islamic suicide terrorists, the people we are fighting in Iraq.

Because if you cannot answer it, or avoid answering it, or answer "no," we know enough about your moral compass to know that further dialogue is unnecessary. In fact, dialogue is impossible. Our understanding of good and evil is so different from yours, there is simply nothing to discuss. Someone who was asked a hundred years ago "Do you believe that whites who lynch blacks are evil?" and refused to answer in the affirmative was not someone one could dialogue with.

Here are the responses you are likely to receive:

1. The Bush administration is just as evil: for illegally invading a country that did not threaten us; for "lying" to get us into Iraq; and because it is a war for corporate profits.

2. Some of those we are fighting may be evil, but not all; some are simply fighting against foreign occupation of their country.

3. We cannot call anyone evil; only God can make such judgments.

I will respond to these "responses," but what is most important is to acknowledge that none of them actually responds to the question. Anyone posing this question to opponents of the war must not let them off the hook. They must answer the question: Do you believe we are fighting evil people in Iraq?

Regarding the issue of judging anyone evil, the best response is a question: Can we judge anyone to be good (not perfect, just good)? Of course we can. But if we can't call anyone evil, we can't call anyone good, and we certainly know that there are good people. If there are good people, there have to be not good, evil people.

Anyone who remains unable to morally judge people who slit the throats of innocent people, who place bombs in the middle of markets, and who murder anyone attempting to help women achieve basic human rights is a moral imbecile.

As for the Bush administration being equally evil, this, too, reveals the responder's values. It is one thing to believe the war was a mistake; it is quite another to regard it as a function of the administration's desire to enrich Halliburton or expand the "American empire," or because Jewish neo-conservatives pushed docile Gentiles -- Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld -- into waging it "for Israel." Such views are held by people who are so angry and so brainwashed about conservatives that they have lost the elementary ability to identify real evil, which is what Islamic and Baathist terrorists and "insurgents" are.

Finally, the people fighting us in Iraq hate freedom, hate women's rights, hate non-Muslims, and do all they can to murder innocent Iraqis and others in order to undermine the march toward freedom in Iraq. They are not fighting foreign invaders; they are fighting foreign liberators and domestic democrats.

It is worth again noting that none of those responses directly answers the question: Do you believe we are fighting evil people in Iraq?

It is one thing to oppose the war in Iraq; it is quite another to deny the evil of those we fight there. That is what the Left in America routinely does. And that is why the culture war in America is as important as the military war in Iraq.

[goldstategop]

Dennis Prager brilliantly points out in the face of the irrelevant assertions by the Jihad Cindys and leftist moonbats opposed to the Iraq War, there's really only one question they need to be prepared to answer: do you believe we're fighting evil people in Iraq? If they don't or refuse to answer it, further interlocution is a complete waste of time. Now we have the answer Cindy Sheehan has been demanding to know why America is fighting the war in Iraq: on behalf of good in this world.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[kenavi]

Let 'em try to wiggle out of this alternative answer:

"Yes, but..."

[Carry_Okie]

I have one question for those who want us to pull out:

Wasn't Cambodia enough for you?

[Brian Allen]

<< Nor is evil of necessity Mad Mao, Joe Stalin, 'Dolfy Shicklegruber, Harihito -- nor even the butcher of Baghdad.

Evil is but the absence of good and even as one who is good, if my effort to be a better man falters I need look no further for evil than to the nearest mirror!

[Theresawithanh]

Right on the mark!

[Choose Ye This Day]

Moral clarity/nailed it bump.

[Choose Ye This Day]

Ping.

If there are good people, it stands to reason that there are evil people as well. There must be opposition in all things.

The Left denies that evil exists outside of the Republican party or the capitalist system.

[kublia khan]

profound truly

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Wasn't Cambodia enough for you?

And don't forget South Vietnam where about a million were slaughtered and hundreds of thousands of others fled, sometimes to die at sea in leaky boats or caught trying to escape by Communists patrol boats. They were surrounded by Communist countries so the sea was their only outlet.

If we abandoned Iraq where would the good Iraqis flee? They too are surrounded by enemy states. Just as you suggest, there would be many, many more slaughtered.

[notpoliticallycorewrecked]

Today my fifteen year old son was talking to me about some of the misguided youth that go to his high school. When they claim that the war is about oil or benefiting Bush's buddies, he calmly asked "Hello? Do you remember 9-11?" or "Have you heard of the twin towers?" He says that their response is priceless, that most of them actually blush.

[goldstategop]

The Left claims to abhor moral judgments but then without blushing, they go ahead and pronounce moral judgments on conservatives!

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Captainpaintball]

Alllll-riiiiiiiighty!!! Bump for the Brilliance of Dennis Prager!

[Carry_Okie]

And don't forget South Vietnam where about a million were slaughtered...

I hadn't, but I prefer to keep it concise.

It hits harder that way. The rest you keep for the denials.

[Just Lori]

Yes, BUT...... it's not our responsibility to be the world's policemen.

that's one I've heard before.

[Loud Mime]

We're not the world's policemen. We're fighting evil because others are cowards....take a side.

[Smartaleck]

One argument would be, yes there is evil all over the world. Iraq was not the greatest threat, we should have gone after N. Korea, very evil leadership.

[rapture-me]

We're fighting evil because others are cowards....take a side.

AMEN!

[Loud Mime]

thanks....

This thread needs more bumps!!!

[Tolik]

Nailed It!
Moral Clarity BUMP !

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[Captain Kirk]

Brilliant?! He sets up a straw man "resposnes" and knocks them down. The most obvious answer to his question (which he ignores because he can't address it) is this: there there is "evil" thoughout the entire world but we don't send troops to fight it in every knook and cranny of the planet where it appears. One could ask of Mr. Prager: does he think we should send troops to fight "evil" in Zimbabwee, Uzbekistan, Kosovo (oops, been there done that) Belarus, the Sudan, and any number of other places.

Some of us think that the the purpose of the American military is to defend the United States not be a global cop against "evil."