Not only does my post appeal to emotion, it openly appeals to emotion. On the other hand, your post uses the appeal to middle ground fallacy. If your list of priorities starts with anything other than stopping the routine torture of children, then your grand scheme of things is probably evil.
This is hardly the rational discussion you claimed to be starting.
Re:Julian Assange arrested in London
by happytoexplain on Thursday April 11, 2019 @08:32AM
(#19633719)
Why? What the parent post is saying makes sense to me, personally. Sometimes important and relevant factors in topic discussion are intrinsically emotional. That's not automatically a fallacy.
Re:Julian Assange arrested in London
by SmellyGeekBoy on Thursday April 11, 2019 @08:29AM
(#19633692)
Any "speaking as a parent" argument is hardly likely to be rational.
Re:Julian Assange arrested in London
by decoyworker on Thursday April 11, 2019 @08:33AM
(#19633730)
What if a child torturer is helping you save other lives and end the war sooner thus saving innumerable lives? Do you see how torture is bad but there are other variables?
You sound like those US TV dramas where the main character is a kind cop put before a dilemma to either pouch an ugly terrorist once or twice on the nose or a school bus full of cute little children will be blown up by a bomb.
Yeah, in theory, there are other variables. In practice, the chances are that if you turn a blind eye to the routine torture children you are simply an evil person.
Fighting evil with evil simply makes two monsters instead of one.
Read up on the Geneva Conventions. War is brutal, yes, but at the end it's a conflict between state powers & while violence is necessary to force the issue, a line must be drawn. See the use of economic sanctions as a method to compel without direct violence. There's enough power between parties which agree to the Geneva Conventions so that if one party is not agreeing to those terms, additional resources can be tapped from allies
Unfortunately it feels the US is powerful enough that the international community isn't stepping in with sanctions against the US
Re:Julian Assange arrested in London
by decoyworker on Thursday April 11, 2019 @08:29AM
(#19633699)
I never claimed that I agreed with the Iraq war and I never claimed that I think that it was justified.
The US is simply out of control.
Look into our history of military and economic 'interventions' post WW2.
This is not a new development. We have been the least bad of the bad actors for years, or at least had the least bad intentions for our allies.
Re:Julian Assange arrested in London
by thiagoharry on Thursday April 11, 2019 @08:40AM
(#19633781)
Yes, at war there are always these ideological explanations that try to justify atrocities, and people tend to accept them when they are from their side of the war (but not when they are from the other side).
Torture is and stays torture. What is there to agreed upon?
The fact that some regime decided to invade a foreign country out of self-interested changes nothing at all.
Re:Julian Assange arrested in London
by decoyworker on Thursday April 11, 2019 @07:53AM
(#19633356)
That statement is true. Torture is and stays torture but would you agree that there is more than one variable in war?
Your second point is a red herring.
Torture is and stays torture but
No. You can stop there. Stop trying to defend the undefensible.
Re:Julian Assange arrested in London
by decoyworker on Thursday April 11, 2019 @11:06AM
(#19635202)
Where do I defend torture?
Can we both agree that war is bad and things are always more complex than they seem? In the grand scheme of things these events rank pretty low on the list of priorities when you are fighting a war.