Re: And how did you celebrate 1 May?

In article <fvrodp$14fb$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 goldfarb@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (David Goldfarb) wrote:

> In article <ddfr-189AEF.22171706052008@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> David Friedman  <ddfr@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >In article <Ko2dnTAtuKw8jLzVnZ2dnUVZ_qninZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> > mark <whitroth@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >> Karl Johanson wrote:
> >> > How many million has the US government killed since the revolution?
> >> 
> >> Depending on who you listen to, somewhere between a quarter million
and a
> >> million in Iraq.
> >
> >I don't think those estimate are for people killed by the US
government; 
> >I believe they are estimates of people who died in a war in which the 
> >U.S. government was a participant. Quite a lot of them were killed by 
> >the other side(s), or died as a result of damage done by the other 
> >side(s).
> 
> If you believe that the invasion of Iraq was not a necessary reaction
> to 9/11 but a choice made by the US government (and I have seen it 
> seriously asserted that people in the current administration were
> plotting to stir up such a war even before the 2000 elections) then
> you will lay all deaths (from any side's actions) that resulted from 
> that war at the US government's doorstep.

I don't think so. That approach leads to double counting.

Consider the first Gulf war. It wouldn't have happened if Iraq hadn't 
invaded Kuwait. It also wouldn't have happened if the U.S. and its 
allies hadn't responded by attacking Iraq. Does that mean that all 
deaths after the initial invasion of Kuwait have to be attributed both 
to Iraq and to the U.S.?

How about WWII? If the allies had acquiesced in the partition of Poland, 
the war wouldn't have happened then--if they had acquiesced in enough 
more of Hitler's plans, it would have had to happen at all, although 
other bad things would have. 

Getting back to the current Iraq war. It wouldn't have happened if the 
U.S. hadn't attacked. It also wouldn't have happened if, as soon as it 
was clear the U.S. was going to attack, Iraq had surrendered. Does that 
mean that both the U.S. and Iraq get credited with all resulting deaths?

I think that "people killed by the U.S. government" implies something a 
good deal stronger than "people who would not have died if the U.S. 
government had followed a different policy." Do you want to argue that 
the Jews Hitler murdered were "killed by the British and French 
government?" It's at least arguable that if they had taken a stronger 
stand against Hitler earlier, he would have fallen from power.

-- 
 http://www.daviddfriedman.com/
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
 Author of _Harald_, a fantasy without magic.
 Published by Baen, paperback in bookstores now