tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10131050.post838525720385881193..comments2024-03-01T08:19:54.547+00:00Comments on BobFromBrockley: “Provocation”bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15439386754907203808noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10131050.post-72584570455632094342007-06-26T10:10:00.000+01:002007-06-26T10:10:00.000+01:00Dialectics:I put dialectics in scare quotes becaus...Dialectics:<BR/><BR/>I put dialectics in scare quotes because I think that the "anti-imperialist" late-Leninist politics of Stop the War etc is the completely undialectical non-Marxist thinking <BR/><BR/>Morality:<BR/><BR/>People need to be held to account whatever their teaching. I believe that human moral capacity exceeds the straitjackets imposed by ideology and religion. <BR/><BR/>Credible alternatives to Lancet:<BR/><BR/>The UN, the Iraqi health ministry and Iraq Body Count, using radically different methodologies, have come to very similar counts. These counts are certainly "conservative" - as they are based on officially reported death (reported to the Iraqi mortuaries etc or reported by the media) and thus miss the unreported individual deaths of people beyond the reach of the authorities. Their counts are roughly a tenth of the Lancet count, though. Lancet is almost certainly a "liberal" estimate, as it is open to the possiblity of deaths being reported multiply (as the methodology assumes a Western-style nuclear household with one family per home and no extended families across homes). Lancet's methodology also allows for unusual local conditions to be skew the count radically, and appears to have been subject to numerous inaccuracies. <BR/><BR/>Whatever count is most credible, the number is obscene and unacceptable. The number the West is responsible for is outrageous. But the "resistance" has long ago started to kill far more Iraqis than the Coalition, yet the Coalition is still held responsible for these deaths.bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15439386754907203808noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10131050.post-11808926063253133632007-06-26T02:37:00.000+01:002007-06-26T02:37:00.000+01:00I don't support what some call the Iraqi resistanc...I don't support what some call the Iraqi resistance. There is nothing progressive about the Islamists or warlords.<BR/><BR/>You have the US arming both sides now. I think they also lost moral standing.<BR/><BR/>I haven't heard a credible alternative to "The Lancet" article. Bush used a number like 50,000.Frank Partisanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03536211653082893030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10131050.post-39199783093421767572007-06-23T05:55:00.000+01:002007-06-23T05:55:00.000+01:00How do you hold a people/religion morally accounta...How do you hold a people/religion morally accountable, Bob, when they have no morals or conscience, because their religion states that it's okay to kill others who do not subscribe to their religious doctrine?Incognitohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09692949516037191969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10131050.post-28247947055534260052007-06-22T18:16:00.000+01:002007-06-22T18:16:00.000+01:00The Islamist and strasserite Lenny the Loon at Sta...The Islamist and strasserite Lenny the Loon at Stalin's Tombola is on record as denying the validity of dialectics and application to the historical process. Thus is Historical Materialism cast out in favour of idealist Volkstheorie - or a sperm theory of history.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com