[MD] Flying Spagetti Monsters

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

[Ian to Platt]
Yes, America is freer and morally superior to many other states. I can make
distictions.

[Platt]
Glad to hear it. If only Arlo could be so responsive.

[Arlo]
Arlo ignored this because it has nothing whatsoever to do with *anything* that
had been said. I'm sorry if the resident right-wing ideologue needs to preface
everything that is said with irrelevant masturbatory patriotism. Besides, your
insinuations of "relativism" are not only idiotic in this instance, they were
obviously only said to smear and evade.

The question has always been, should a soldier ever disobey an order if that
order is seen as immoral? Below, you say "no". I say "yes". What does this have
to do with "America being morally superior to many other nations"? Nothing. You
asked if I'd fly the Enola Gay. I answered your question straight out. To
accuse me of being non-responsive... well, that's just the height of irony.
Why, though, am I not surprised?

[Ian to Platt]
Is there any order from your commanding officer you would not obey ?

[Platt]
In battle, no. Otherwise, give me a for instance.

[Arlo]
So, if you were ordered to shoot dead a little girl on the street... in
battle... , you'd aim and fire, no qualms or questions asked? Again, why am I
not surprised.

The sort of blind patriotism Platt proposes, where a soldier never, ever
questions or disobeys an order, is the sort of malignant, historical garbage
that has led to endless wars and conquest. Whether it is blind obedience to the
"church", or to the "state", the result is historically obvious. From the
Spanish Inquisition, to Pol Pot, from the extermination of Native Americans to
the attempted extermination of the Jews. All of these have one thing in common,
blind obedience to a power structure that proposed that it alone was "morally
pure", and so all its actions were ipso facto "moral".