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Quote:

Originally posted by jseal
Belial,

Freedom of speech/expression is not an absolute. My freedom to shout “Fire!” stops well before I am seated in a crowded cinema.

There is, I grant you, an unavoidable tension – a give and take if you will – between the freedoms customarily extended to our political leaders and their responsibilities to be honest and forthright about their policies.

In order to be effective they must be afforded sufficient room in which to maneuver into some consensus the various and sometime contradictory constituents they represent. At the same time, I will grant that they cannot expect the electorate to accept back room deals done at night in obscurity.

I'll agree with you there. There has to be a line drawn, and it's tough to decide where. As long as there is open dialogue we have some hope of getting it "right".

Quote:

I do think we differ in how we see the role of the military in a democracy. I point again to 20th century history to emphasize the importance of segregating the military from politics.

I do see your point, and to quite an extent agree with it in terms of what I would like to see. However, what I would like to see and what I believe are in this case not necessarily the same. My contention is that if the government truly wishes the military to engage, one of two things will happen: One, commanders will comply, or two, they will not, and the likely result will be some sort of coup, with either the government deposing the military commanders and replacing them with commanders who will comply, or the military deposing the government who then become the government, giving us a situation where obviously the military will do the government's bidding as they would be one and the same.