Napoleon Ier wrote:No, it isn't. If you read the argument and understand it, you'll come to the conclusion that not only is your straw-man about as similar to my actual argument as social science is to a real academic subject, but you've (again) careered on with your gobsmackingly obtuse responses without even bothering to make the basic primary school effort of looking up the words you didn't understand in the dictionary (let alone the AS student effort of picking up a decent phil reference book from a library).
I suggest you go do that, or at the very least google "deontology" and "utilitarian". Then if you still feel (God help us) you have something to say, we'll look at it, alright?
Come on. Make the basic effort first. This is just a disgrace.
If everybody made the right decisions and did what was correct and moral on their own, we would not have need for laws or judges or prosecutions.
When the culture is "get the info
no matter what", then that is the message people get and many come to believe it is true,
whether it is or not. It takes objective (but knowledgeable) parties to step back and say "wait! Let's look at the
evidence". And the EVIDENCE is what really matters. In this case, most of those who were not directly using or approving the methods in question are against it, say it was not effective, that it does far more harm than good. IF their arguments were valid, then the truth is there would be far more people who are
knowledgeable, who have
access to the real details who were
not among those standing up and saying "stop!". Instead, you have those outside the CIA (FBI, etc... who also need to gather critical information in very serious situations) and even many IN the CIA who are saying this was wrong. Even with the "circle the wagons"/"protect our own" mentality, there are still a good number of CIA agents that are speaking out against their agency. THAT speaks far more than those few who "went along".
Saying "they did it, so it is OK" is not only baloney, its a criminal argument. It is the kind of logic criminals use to justify their actions everywhere. Seems like the argument "I was just following orders" was deemed invalid a few years ago, too... in a venue far closer to your home than mine.
(this does NOT mean I think those CIA operatives should be prosecuted.. I think the higher ups perhaps should be, but not those who honestly thought the actions were sanctioned and OK).
