Comment by viggity | Hacker News Reader

Comment by viggity | Hacker News Reader

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It is no where near the middle. The nazis intentionally and explicitly murdered some 12 to 14 MILLION people in various death camps. The US has done no such thing and has only ever proposed to leave the Iraqis alone and under a democratic government that they can themselves control. The US has only stayed so long as to ensure that said government is free of corruption and coercion and able to protect its citizens from nefarious causes.

To compare what the US has done to that of the Nazis is the most unjust characterization imaginable. Obviously injustices have occurred but on a scale that pales in comparison to the the intentional actions of the Nazis. Please put everything in perspective. Look at the intentions of parties involved before you compare a freedom loving people to the worst example of political ideology in the history of the world.

It's nowhere in the middle, but you're delusional if you can claim that there was any good will in this war. It was a war fabricated and perpetuated on lies, and those who started it deserve as much as any war criminal responsible for the deaths of thousands, which I would hope is more than what any serial killer rotting away in an American prison gets.

Flip it around then. I submit that just as the American invaders cannot reasonably be compared to the Nazis, neither can the insurgents.

It's hard to say either side in this conflict has the moral high ground, so it's equally hard to say that a move to the detriment of one side or the other is amoral (unless it's clear that a move is to the detriment of both sides.)

Absolutely true. There are particularly murderous Al Qaeda people who were operating in Iraq (and Afghanistan), and they are in an entirely different class (actually evil) vs. the majority of nationalist insurgents or common criminals.

Despite facing them as enemies, I wouldn't even consider most of the Taliban, Sunni former regime elements, or Shia militias to be evil for trying to kill the coalition military; the only really evil things they do are attacks on civilian population, and that isn't even done by the vast majority.

In Iraq, we actually successfully reached out to a lot of the less-irreconciable elements ("Sons of Iraq") and gave them a role in the new Iraqi state. There were cases where one day they were engaging US forces, and they next day were recognized by US forces as a useful security force and given equipment (well, reflective PT belts from the PX, so we knew they were the "good" guys now) and support.

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