toldailytopic: Can the assassination of a dictator be justified?

[Nathon Detroit]

The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for January 25th, 2010 09:46 AM

toldailytopic: Can the assassination of a dictator be justified?

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[Aimiel]

Hitler? Mussolini? Xerxes? Hussein? Usama bin Laden? Chavez? Kadaffay? I don't see why not. Traditionally, we haven't done so, but countless lives might have been saved, had we done so.

 

[bybee]

Hitler? Mussolini? Xerxes? Hussein? Usama bin Laden? Chavez? Kadaffay? I don't see why not. Traditionally, we haven't done so, but countless lives might have been saved, had we done so.

Governments have traditionally enacted laws to protect society from murderers. The assassination of a brutal, murdering dictator might fall under the legal right of a people to defend themselves from further depredations. To allow the innocent and/or the vulnerable to be brutalized or destroyed by a dictator is certainly immoral. bybee

 

[Aimiel]

I agree. :thumb:

 

[chrysostom]

sure
why not?
at least Catholics get to go to confession right after just in case it is not ok

 

[Nick M]

Depends. Many people use the word dictator to describe a monarchy. To rephrase the question, should a government take out other world leaders that are an abomination to God, yes.

Should a private person do it without permission or a price? No.

 

[Gozilla]

The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for January 25th, 2010 09:46 AM

toldailytopic: Can the assassination of a dictator be justified?

Solomon said there is a time for war. Jesus said buy a sword. We should take out bad leaders. :yoshi:

 

[TomO]

Depends. Many people use the word dictator to describe a monarchy. To rephrase the question, should a government take out other world leaders that are an abomination to God, yes.

Should a private person do it without permission or a price? No.

If one is going to take a strictly Biblical stance on this I agree with Nick. lain:

 

[Aimiel]

In retrospect, had someone assasinated Hitler, before WWII was started, millions would not have been murdered. As it stands, the suffering and deaths are the result of not doing what is not only expedient, but demanding to be done: eliminate the evil dictator before the murders spread outside his own borders.

 

[Grayven]

If we are at war, then any military target is justified. As the head of the military, the leader is a valid target.

If we are not at war, then the leader of a regime we don't like is not a valid target.

Just my thoughts.

 

[Aimiel]

Poland wasn't at war when Hitler bombed them. We weren't at war when Japan or Al Qaeda attacked. Sometimes waiting for the inevitable is just stupid.

 

[Sonrise]

I think the word assassination is key here. Do not all have rights to trial and defense?

 

[Aimiel]

When Hussein invaded Kuwait, if we had sent an assassin to take him out, many lives might have been spared. Had Bill Clinton not been so inept, Usama bin Laden would have been put to death, quietly. The list goes on.

 

[Aner]

Hitler? Mussolini? Xerxes? Hussein? Usama bin Laden? Chavez? Kadaffay? I don't see why not. Traditionally, we haven't done so, but countless lives might have been saved, had we done so.

If you had included Bush/Cheney - I would be right there in agreement with you. Maybe the murderous US Republican Party?? Maybe the murderous mercenary Erik Prince (head of Blackwater hiding under Xe now)?

Sure - why not..... Jesus said to "buy a sword", Solomon said "there is a time for war"....

Amen.

 

[Grayven]

Poland wasn't at war when Hitler bombed them. We weren't at war when Japan or Al Qaeda attacked. Sometimes waiting for the inevitable is just stupid.

Sometimes murder is more expedient than being just, true. Do we want to be expedient or just? Sometimes being just is harder than being expedient, but its not an excuse.

 

[Lighthouse]

sure
why not?
at least Catholics get to go to confession right after just in case it is not ok

And Christians are already forgiven...

 

[Aimiel]

Sometimes murder is more expedient than being just, true. Do we want to be expedient or just? Sometimes being just is harder than being expedient, but its not an excuse.

We don't need an excuse to do what's right. We just need someone to do it.

 

[Lighthouse]

We don't need an excuse to do what's right. We just need someone to do it.

*volunteers*

 

[Aimiel]

Hey, if Al Qaeda had been smart, and wanted to hit Americans where it hurts the most, they'd have taken out all the beer breweries in the states... but then they would have had several million Americans in bass-boats, headed across the Atlantic with their shotguns loaded, looking for Osama bin Laden and his buddies.

 

[Grayven]

Aimiel, we have people to "do" what we want. The question is not "can we do it" but "shoud we". Who "should" we kill? The more than obvious answer is "our enemies", whoever they are.