Nov 11 - Draft Dodger Day

[It Aint Necessarily So]

Right after Veterans Day is a good time to celebrate the contributions of those brave, cowardly, upstanding, selfish, & otherwise motivated men who refused conscription.

I respect everybody who managed to avoid going to fight any American war since World War II. I just saw a nice NOVA special about the use of psychedelics to treat addictions, protracted depression, and PTSD. One Iraq vet was being treated with MDMA for incapacitating PTSD (he is never not with his support dog in this) caused in part from watching a buddy trapped in a vehicle burn to death after an explosion and fire in his vehicle. I only bring it up because all throughout this segment, I kept thinking, look what America did to this guy based in a lie. He still doesn't know that his country betrayed him. If he did, he not only wouldn't have volunteered, he'd also have fled had they tried to conscript him. He appears at 37:40 in the following:

NOVA | Can Psychedelics Cure? | Season 49 | Episode 15 | PBS

The whole special was enlightening. Earlier, we see a former alcoholic who repeatedly failed rehab, and was close to death when he received psilocibin twice. He never drank again after the first dose.

This *also* angered me about "my country" and the religious influence that put up barriers impeding this research and stem cell research - another miraculous breakthrough in medical therapeutics. Cuba and its remarkably effective vaccines for cancer was featured in a recent episode, another mystery area to American physicians, who were shielded from this because of political ideology.

 

[Heyo]

So you'd be happy to live under a government where I would have been killed long since and you would have had to worship the tyrant. Have fun goose-stepping today because you would choose selfish self-preservation over everything else.

So you are happy to live under a government which constantly wages war against anyone and everyone for economic or geo-political reasons?
You had fun goose-stepping into Afghanistan and Iraq, countries which didn't attack the US and everything based on lies by the warmongers?

I can't get myself to praise stupidity.

 

[metis]

So you are happy to live under a government which constantly wages war against anyone and everyone for economic or geo-political reasons?

Christian theologians have long debated when we are allowed to fight in a war, and the Catholic Church pretty much settled in on the Just-War Theory, which I also reluctantly believed in for quite a while. However, the problem with that is the human nature to justify actions if they perceive that their cause is "just", which basically opens Pandorah's box.

Thus, more recently I have concluded that the J-W T simply does not work in real life, thus I have returned back to my long-felt belief that nom-violence is the only one compatible with Jesus' message.

 

[Revoltingest]

...belief that nom-violence is the only one compatible with Jesus' message.

Nom-violence [sic], eh.
Hitler would've loved to spread the message of
no armed self defense in countries he coveted.
That never works unless every single living person
is fully on board. Not gonna happen.

 

[sun rise]

Nom-violence [sic], eh.
Hitler would've loved to spread the message of
no armed self defense in countries he coveted.
That never works unless every single living person
is fully on board. Not gonna happen.

I started off life believing in non-violence. But I realized that if I saw a man strangling and raping a woman and did not act when I could it would be totally wrong. That's of course an extreme example, but it serves to point out that absolute non-violence leads to bad results.

When a nation (Russia) invades another nation (Ukraine) to overthrow it's government and seize its land, the same principle applies. We give tools of violence to the one attacked to defend itself.

The balance comes from considering Martin Luther King and Gandhi where non-violence worked.

So my principles are to be as non-violent as possible and to not fall into enjoying violence.

 

[Revoltingest]

I started off life believing in non-violence. But I realized that if I saw a man strangling and raping a woman and did not act when I could it would be totally wrong. That's of course an extreme example, but it serves to point out that absolute non-violence leads to bad results.

When a nation (Russia) invades another nation (Ukraine) to overthrow it's government and seize its land, the same principle applies. We give tools of violence to the one attacked to defend itself.

The balance comes from considering Martin Luther King and Gandhi where non-violence worked.

So my principles are to be as non-violent as possible and to not fall into enjoying violence.

My identity....
Non-aggressionist

Whaddaya think?

 

[Heyo]

Thus, more recently I have concluded that the J-W T simply does not work in real life, thus I have returned back to my long-felt belief that nom-violence is the only one compatible with Jesus' message.

Nom-violence [sic], eh.
Hitler would've loved to spread the message of
no armed self defense in countries he coveted.

There are no just wars (because one of the participants wasn't justified under non aggression).
However, self defence is justified. That doesn't make the war a just war.

The last time the US was participant in a justified defensive war was WWII. Every potential recruit should know that. I.e. every veteran from wars after WWII participated in an unjustified war, willingly or negligently.

 

[Debater Slayer]

Instead of Draft Dodger day why not call it Yellow Bellied Coward's day?

It takes courage to refuse to fight in wars of aggression and to refuse to be sent overseas to kill people unnecessarily.

I respect everyone who refused to fight in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Their refusal to be used as tools of military aggression and hegemony is something I deeply honor.

 

[Debater Slayer]

A question I ask anyone who honors veterans specifically for fighting rather than for losing their lives in unnecessary wars: what is the difference between your position and honoring the actions of a "Ukraine veteran" who fought for Russian forces during their invasion of Ukraine? Should people honor such "service"? If not, I don't see why they should glorify "service" in Vietnam, Afghanistan, or Iraq—especially knowing that all of those wars contributed to many unnecessary deaths and a lot of suffering, including of innocent people.

 

[Revoltingest]

There are no just wars (because one of the participants wasn't justified under non aggression).
However, self defence is justified. That doesn't make the war a just war.

Meh...semantics.
I'd have thought it agreed upon by all that
a "just war" always refers to the perspective
of the defender, not the attacker.

 

[Revoltingest]

I respect everyone who refused to fight in Vietnam...

Everyone?
That would include some despicable people (yours truly).

Anyway, I respect the act, for whatever motive they have.
Russian men who are accused of evading Putin's draft
out of fear get my approval. Fear is useful in avoiding death.
Go Dodgers!
Fighting-age men in Russia are still hiding in fear of being sent to war