Intention does matter

Post #35,707 by 3) 4/16/02 9:47:16 PM Reply	Intention does matter There really is a difference between a mistake in the fog and dark and using an ambulance to transport explosives. Yes, it is moraly worse to target civilians than to target combatants and kill civilians in the process. Worst of all is to deliberately place your civilians in harm's way as SOP. It shows that you think your enemy cares more about your people than you do. If you even consider that it is possible for your enemy to care more about your people than you do, and you do not step down, you are no leader, just a thug. I am not a man, I am a free number.
Post #35,716 by Brandioch 4/16/02 11:06:39 PM Reply	Yep. Yes, it is moraly worse to target civilians than to target combatants and kill civilians in the process. You are, of course, familiar with the poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter". It's a shame I don't follow that morallity.
Post #35,774 by inthane-chan 4/17/02 2:01:16 PM Reply	Actually, he's got a point. Y'see, he left out this little bit - It is morally worse to target combatants and kill civilians in the process than to target combatants and actively attempt to avoid civilians in the process, putting yourself at greater risk. Now, as towards whether or not the Israeli military did so - we'll probably never know the truth and be certain of it. Methinks that the press corps needs some new technology - something akin to the Predator drones, sans weaponry. I've been reading David Brin's The Transparent Society and quite frankly, it's starting to appeal to me on a lot of levels... "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Post #35,778 by hnick 4/17/02 2:54:49 PM Reply	Drones aren't the technology we need... What we need would be something more like Heinlein's Fair Witness. Journalism is pretty much dead these days. The hacks that we have are intrested in selling paper or air-time. There is no doubt in my mind that reporters or their editors would go for the "entertainment" value of tanks and bulldozers crushing houses and maybe even people (yeah! just think of the ratings!!) rather than attempt to show an unbiased well analyzed narrative of what actually happened. Hey, they have the special FX of an Arnold movie without the cost (to them, of course...) Reporters are pretty useless. They could just as usefully bring in lawyers with the troops. my .02 Hugh
Post #35,784 by Ashton 4/17/02 3:59:22 PM Reply	Exactly! 'Fair Witness' is dead-on. But WHO amongst us ???
Post #35,805 by inthane-chan 4/17/02 5:03:30 PM Reply	Ah, but drones are just the start... ...if EVERYBODY has drones, and not just the press corps, and enough pictures get out and around, then statistically an image of what has really happened is creatable. That's the premise of The Transparent Society - everybody observes everybody else, no secrets. "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Post #35,806 by hnick 4/17/02 5:06:15 PM Reply	Doesn't matter... wouldn't work Fair Witnesses would not work in our society because an unemotional strictly factual account is not exciting to the masses and would not sell paper/air-time. And because the trade would not be valued, it would be fairly difficult to get an intelligent, educated person to train and dedicate their life to such a discipline. Just cause I can spec it doesn't mean I can implement it... Pity, Hugh
Post #35,811 by Ashton 4/17/02 5:54:16 PM Reply	An important minority* would value them, but (* a handful among the minority who now even vote, that is) it's moot: only those on a course to genuine adulthood might apply for training.. Even then.. they would have to cultivate abnormal characteristics, present in only a small sampple of the species. Which current handful of genuine 'adults' - might train them? See? - not ready yet. Ashton

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