Well with the significant news recently about Osama Ben Laden’s death I was stimulated by two individuals into some deep thought about this. One friend felt that on my Face book I was somehow energized and happy about this death. I am never happy about death. I looked at my remarks and I do not believe I made any remarks of joy or enthusiasm. What I said was we should cut off money to Pakistan , as I believe in George Bushes Doctrine of “if a state harbors a terrorist, then it is a terrorist state”. It is quite obvious that Pakistan was harboring Ben Laden. providing a safe harbor for this declared terrorist and if indeed if the US government is consistent, it makes no sense to provide money to Pakistan. Well is it my view ? I am not providing anyone with my personal view really, what I am doing is stating the flaw in the Logic of paying Pakistan billions of dollars. Excuse me, but I like logic. My over all view is that we should not provide as government money to anyone, as individuals we can and should. That is the libertarian view.
Special Forces
The next friend who stimulated my thinking was an EX Military guy who said ” Murder is Murder ” and indicated that killing Ben Laden was murder by the US special forces. I point out that well your not taking into account the issue of WAR. In other words is killing someone in WAR murder ? This is an age old question which we debated in college. I happen to go a Mennonite University which is Pacifist. They believe that no matter what you always turn the other cheek. So this may be a valid Christian philosophy, but somehow I think World War II and the execution of 2 million Jewish civilians seems one example of a justified war. Never the less and to the United States credit, it is one of the few nations that allows pacifist not to fight in combat and can get an exclusion. The Mennonites held true to their belief during WW II and the US did not force them to go to WAR.
Interesting side line above, but I will get back to Ben Laden murder or not. According to the Catholic Church there is such thing as a justifiable war. That means that killing people in war is not murder if I am correct. So the bigger question is , Is this a War we have going with Ben Laden ? Then if it is a war then is the US killing Ben Laden murder ?
How do we define a war. Well typically someone declares a war. In this case I am not sure if the US congress has declared formal declaration of War on Al Queda or Ben Laden, but I do believe Ben Laden has declared war on the United States or so he has stated , so it would seem to me this is war.
So I tend to think that Killing Ben Laden by the USA is not murder.
The other interesting point brought up by my friend was if we kill every time someone kills we will all be dead when he quotes the “eye for an eye” biblical verse. So I think the thinking is that there will be no one left here if we keep this tit for tat battle going. We all eventually be dead. Well the problem I have with that is that it does not take into account that there are circumstances that if someone does not do something on one side, there may be no one left on the other side. As example, if you have a group of people who want to kill another group of people or say a crazy person wants to kill your family. Do you say to your self “Ok I will be a pacifist and allow the crazy person to kill me and my family? ” Would it be better to kill the crazy person before he kills your family ? Well I know what I would do. Do you know what you would do its your choice ?
God may know the answer he created this
Pacifism also can be deadly to people and we see examples through out history. Pol Pot and Cambodia and the Killing Fields the world sit by as millions were murdered. There was Nazi Germany, and of course there are others in the world today such as parts of Africa.
So what is better ? Kill a few early, in order to save the most people or allow the murder of millions so one can be a pacifist and not take a life. Well this is the ultimate question people have to answer themselves. That is why we have pacifist and thank God this country allows for those Individuals to be pacifist when so few other countries do.
As for me, all I can say is I am a Doctor and I want as many people to live as possible. In my trauma training of mass casualties we were trained not to think with our hearts so that the most number of people can live . In other words when you have a disaster and there are hundreds of injured people you have to save the most people. So unfortunately the ones who may be the most injured and have little chance of survival are left to die and you try to save the ones you think will have a chance of living. All because you have to make a choice due to limited resources and heavy demand. So I try to put things into this perspective. If killing Ben Laden will save many more than if he stayed alive, will that be a good choice?
Only time will tell as this story is not done. I am just glad I am not the President but doctor808.
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