Ante Diem IV IDUS IANVARIAS
MMDCCLXI AUC
(10 January 2008)
Dies Comitialis: citizens may vote on this day
Dies Iovis
Aedes Iovis Optimi Maximi Capitolini
Improbus est homo qui beneficium scit accipere et redere nescit.
Wicked is the man who knows how to receive a benefit and does not know how to give one.
Beneficium can also be translated as kindness or favor which I think is probably even more appropriate if we wish to dwell, contemplate, think, consider or whatever activity occurs in your mind concerning the manifestation of wickedness in the world. We as a culture especially within what is considered the 'Developed West' has never lacked images of the wickedness that man has the capacity to inflict upon himself. Shouldn't we as a culturally enlightened people be a light and watchtower to what it means to conduct ourselves as responsible citizens of the world? We have the ability to transcend the wicked man and become an example at home and in the international community of the benefit that will always be derived from providing kindness and favor to our neighbors. To say that a preemptive attack is the right and just action of a responsible government is to deny what this country has endeavored to become since its very inception.
The Miserable World of Prometheus
by Mark Weinstein
Just consider what these men were ultimately responsible for bringing upon the world stage. Is a child born an extremist or a revolutionary? What was it that allowed such attitudes and feelings to grow and flourish? How would our government today look upon the 'Sons of Liberty'? I would suspect that a group such as it was would probably fit the present definition of a terrorist organization.
Sons of Liberty: Patriots or Terrorists?
British View of the Sons of Liberty
Samuel Adams Founder of the Sons of Liberty
The United States today finds itself embroiled in what many believe will ultimately end in an Iraqi Civil War. I would find it much more reassuring if I could believe that our presence in Iraq was to preserve the Iraqi's right of self determination. There has been successful movement against insurgents groups recently, but do we see same kind of movement and success at a political settlement that could result in a unified country for all Iraqis. I am skeptical whether this goal is achievable without some form of partition. Yet, there is a larger question that needs to be settled before there can be meaningful peace throughout the Middle East. The Palestinian Question which some would say was created by the Partition of Palestine in 1948 by the United Nations has gone unanswered for sixty years. I have very little faith that George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice will be successful where so many others have failed. We are told over and over again that US support of the only viable democracy in the Middle East is critical to our national security. There is one difficulty with this partisan support when a Moslem resident of Israel cannot become a citizen because of his or her religion. However I want to take a look at two groups who played a vital role in the creation of the state of Israel. The Irgun or Etzel and the Haganah and I ask you where to we make the distinction between freedom fighter and terrorist.
Haganah - History of the Israeli Underground Group
Welcome To The Irgun Site
Irgun Emblem: The map shows the land claimed by the organization for the Jewish state, which corresponds to current Israel, West Bank, Gaza strip and Jordan.
I support Israel's right to exist and I believe US support should continue. I question whether that support should be unconditional or not. The real shame, however, is this whole issue has as its bedrock Anti Semitism. The British and the United States did not want a flood of Jewish immigration at the end of World War II. I can still remember in the 1950's and the early 1960's when we still had restricted neighborhoods where Jewish and African Americans could not buy a home.
Images of a time that most of us don't remember and what they depict may or may not have been necessary. It is for each individual to make their own choice or decision.
The Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Verdun
Pearl Harbor
USS West Virginia took two aerial bombs (one dud) and seven torpedo hits; of the seven at least five were from aircraft and one from a midget submarine.
El Alamein
The Battle of Berlin
German Concentration Camps
Japanese Prisoners of War
Hiroshima
Just War Principles
A just war can only be waged as a last resort. All non-violent options must be exhausted before the use of force can be justified.
A war is just only if it is waged by a legitimate authority. Even just causes cannot be served by actions taken by individuals or groups who do not constitute an authority sanctioned by whatever the society and outsiders to the society deem legitimate.
A just war can only be fought to redress a wrong suffered. For example, self-defense against an armed attack is always considered to be a just cause (although the justice of the cause is not sufficient--see point #4). Further, a just war can only be fought with "right" intentions: the only permissible objective of a just war is to redress the injury.
A war can only be just if it is fought with a reasonable chance of success. Deaths and injury incurred in a hopeless cause are not morally justifiable.
The ultimate goal of a just war is to re-establish peace. More specifically, the peace established after the war must be preferable to the peace that would have prevailed if the war had not been fought.
The violence used in the war must be proportional to the injury suffered. States are prohibited from using force not necessary to attain the limited objective of addressing the injury suffered.
The weapons used in war must discriminate between combatants and non-combatants. Civilians are never permissible targets of war, and every effort must be taken to avoid killing civilians. The deaths of civilians are justified only if they are unavoidable victims of a deliberate attack on a military target.
What we are cannot be relative to the times in which we live. War is destructive by its own definition and I do not see how in this century that there can be any moral or ethical justification for war.
Senex Magister
It is now time to bring this war to an end and live as brothers in a world based on fairness for all of us.
Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism. ~Thomas Jefferson~
Bring Them Home
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