Quail's Nagging Question

[The Great Quail]

Barbara writes,

>Have you asked yourself why you *really* wanna know so bad?

Well.... I explained that, I thought. I wish to know the extent of 
your pacifism. It helps further define the space and contours of the 
argument at hand. For instance, if you, like Toby, believe that the 
U.S. has on occasion been morally right when it committed troops to a 
conflict, it means one thing. If you believe that the US was never 
right in committing troops or using violence, it means another. In 
the first case, the argument would be less about pacifism and/or the 
right of nation states to wage war than it would be about appropriate 
circumstances and other factors. In the second case, the argument 
takes place in a space where one side believes there are no 
appropriate circumstances; or if there are, even the threats of 
Naziism or Japanse aggression were not sufficient.

So I think it's a very relevant question, and I ask it to help myself 
better understand your beliefs.

>  I'm not gonna answer your
>question, though, directly. I don't know enough about war and history, and

Barbara, how lame is that? Come on -- you have tons of opinions about 
Afghanistan and the war there, but suddenly you don't even have a 
baseline high-school education of crucial modern history?

>I'll just prove myself an idiot trying to battle out WWII with you;

I have no intentions of battling out the finer points of WWII with 
anyone; it was just a question.

>Another reason, a more important reason is
>because I know how you'll use my answer, and I won't give you *that*
>satisfaction.

Ah.... so you are withholding an answer to a question relevant to the 
debate I am having with you on account that that answer may shape my 
thinking? Argh! Again, why and I even carrying out this pointless 
argument with you? Consider this my last post on this subject.

>It wouldn't be honest, and I don't want to contribute to the
>lies that you tell yourself.

Huh?

>"Ah! that's it! She's a wacky pacifist! I don't have to pay attention to her
>anymore."

Oh, so you are giving me an answer. Well, you are right in a sense -- 
I do think you are a wacky pacifist; but that doesn't mean I don;t 
think I can pay attention to your opinions.

And if you really have this anxiety over the issue, shouldn't that 
tell you that maybe a part of you feels that your beliefs *should* be 
examined? What are you afraid of?

>I fear you'd latch on to any old thing to ease your nagging
>doubt.  Kinda like the less sophisticated ones around here who just dismiss
>me as "Doug."

Well, yeah, I can't figure that out; I think it's obvious you are not 
Doug, unless Doug really is a mastermind of fiction writing.

>Besides, who cares about the ugly old past anyway?  I'm in a "take it from
>here" kinda mood these days. Let's just stop blowing off those poor people's
>little arms *now* huh? Wha'd ya say?

Yeah, ok. The past has no relevance, nor does the future, and let's 
not do anything that causes anyone any harm. Yikes.

Signing off on this one,

--Quail