From: "John C. Randolph" <jcr@idiom.com>
Date: Sat, 17 Feb 1996 12:51:21 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: CDA Yes Votes; Collection
In-Reply-To: <199602162120.QAA18116-wVB1@bb.hks.net>
Message-ID: <jcr.824530373@idiom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


"Kevin S. Van Horn" <vanhorn@hks.net> writes:

>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

>tallpaul@pipeline.com (tallpaul) wrote:
>> 
>>Isn't it the libertarian types on the list who are into mass killings of
>>civilians with nukes and the "socialist statists" who tend to oppose it? 

>No.

>Tim May is the first person I've ever encountered who calls himself a
>libertarian and yet thinks dropping the Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
>was justified.  I think that, from a consistent libertarian perspective,
>using the Bomb was equivalent to taking out a Mafia chieftain by napalming
>the neighborhood in which he lived.  Perhaps the bad guy being targetted was
>a killer who deserved to die, but that doesn't justify snuffing his neighbors.

Well, you can count me as the second.

I also consider myself a hard-line libertarian, and I'm not going to second
guess Truman on the use of the bomb.  His duty was to save American and
allied lives.  He had no duty whatsoever to limit the destruction that
was visited upon the japanese mainland, particularly in view of the 
fact that Japan's war against the United States of America began in an
unprovoked, suprise attack.

Japan suffered for allowing their government to run amok.  So did Germany.
Germans who were paying attention during the thirties fled their country,
and those who were unfortunate enough to be trapped, and yet still loved
freedom, became members of an anti-NAZI underground.

Japan, Germany, Italy, and other countries like Iraq, where people place
obedience to their leaders above their own moral responsiblity, will
suffer mass destruction.  Think of it as evolution in action.

-jcr