Since
I first opposed, publicly, the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, based on
what turned out to be completely false claims, I have been told many
times that, "Well, you turned out to be right about that, Charles, ...
but, at the time, no one knew how things would turn out. Those WMDs could have been there. At the time, you didn't know you were right – you couldn't have known."
Yes, and that is exactly why I think it was important to base my personal choices, not on what the White House was selling or what the media outlets were screaming, but on what my own gut told me, and even more important, on my personally held principles. Logically, I knew that the immediacy of the invasion was only justified by the fact that the case for the war was coming unraveled, and quickly. But more than that; I felt that it was a violation of my principles – long-standing American principles – for the United States to attack another country, any other country, but especially a tiny, defenseless country, that had done nothing to justify that attack. It was wrong. And I didn't have to possess indisputable evidence of anything at all to know that.
It was dismaying to watch so many others totally abandon their own principles, out of fear ... easily; without the slightest reluctance or doubt.
Friends, when your "deeply held principles" can be easily manipulated by propagandists; and are subject to situational interpretation, then they aren't principles at all, are they?
So, in the absence of sound knowledge on which to base our decisions; should we trust the US government and the US media to tell us what to do? I think we've learned how unwise that was 12 years ago. And how unwise it would be to let them do it again now.
Trust the agents of authority ... or trust our own gut instincts and fall back on our own personally held principles?
ll argue for the latter – it has always worked for me.
Trust your gut. Always. No act, based on principle, regardless of the outcome, is meaningless.
Turn off that television and start clearing away the cobwebs of deception.
Yes, and that is exactly why I think it was important to base my personal choices, not on what the White House was selling or what the media outlets were screaming, but on what my own gut told me, and even more important, on my personally held principles. Logically, I knew that the immediacy of the invasion was only justified by the fact that the case for the war was coming unraveled, and quickly. But more than that; I felt that it was a violation of my principles – long-standing American principles – for the United States to attack another country, any other country, but especially a tiny, defenseless country, that had done nothing to justify that attack. It was wrong. And I didn't have to possess indisputable evidence of anything at all to know that.
It was dismaying to watch so many others totally abandon their own principles, out of fear ... easily; without the slightest reluctance or doubt.
Friends, when your "deeply held principles" can be easily manipulated by propagandists; and are subject to situational interpretation, then they aren't principles at all, are they?
So, in the absence of sound knowledge on which to base our decisions; should we trust the US government and the US media to tell us what to do? I think we've learned how unwise that was 12 years ago. And how unwise it would be to let them do it again now.
Trust the agents of authority ... or trust our own gut instincts and fall back on our own personally held principles?
ll argue for the latter – it has always worked for me.
Trust your gut. Always. No act, based on principle, regardless of the outcome, is meaningless.
Turn off that television and start clearing away the cobwebs of deception.
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