> Evidently you and Brad are not believewrs in international law; you are in
> fact believers in ionternational vigelanteism by anyone who can get away
> with it, so long as they're "special," as Rice puts it.
Don't ascribe my views to Brad. And you misstate the view, which is more like "Might makes right when employed to bring about desirable ends."
> I have said that Rwanda was a hard case for my view. For your example,a
> Nazi Germany that was not aggressively imperialist would have poseda very
> different situation. And what would you say the utilitarain calculus
> suggests, Luke, if the choice was a world war and 50 million dead, or half
a
> million murdered German Jews? Bear in mind that unlike you, I am not a
> utilitarian.
Can't understate the importance of Germany having been a liberal democracy for the past half-century as opposed to a facist state. But, you're right, the calculus is much different in my counterfactual, but not as easy to calculate as you suggest.
> Because I am not a utilitarian I find paternalism exceedingly obnoxiosu,
> especially if it carried out by parties who are arrogarnt, ruthless,
> violent, self-interested, and havea bad history themselves.
It's not paternalistic to give person x if he requests it, or would request it if he could. Though your right, I see nothing intrinsically bad about paternalism, which is why I can support seat-belt laws because they save the lives of some and not because they lower insurance rates for all.
> Oh, I think the US did the right thing in fighting WWII. But this aint
WWII.
> And saving the Jews had nothing to dow ith why the US fought WWII.
So, as you yourself grant, the US can sometimes be an agent for good even if that has little to do with their motivations.
> A possible Rawlsian response is that we're not entitled to use force
merely
> bedcause we happen to have it . . .
As I pointed out above, that's not my view, so I see no reason to defend it.
-- Luke
> jks
>
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