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<blockquote data-quote="Drifter Bob" data-source="post: 1771028" data-attributes="member: 17723">The American soldiers who performed atrocities such as the MaiLai (sp) massacre were EVIL.&nbsp; That does not preclude their changing their alignment later, but yes, they were evil.&nbsp; But as bad as it can be, the American army is not like the SS in WW II.&nbsp;&nbsp; there are evil people in US army, and hard core combat conditions do tend to promote that, but in the current US army at any rate, there is an effort to combat that.&nbsp; There are rules in the US army that if something unethical is going on you can refuse to go along with it.&nbsp; In the SS there is a good chance you would be shot or put into a punishment Battallion.SS doctrine wanted their troops to be lawful evil.Now, say, the US army in the Philipines in the Spanish American war in 1904 say, were probably much more like the SS.Regardless, there are lines that if you cross them, you are evil.So I suppose in a broad sense, yes, I am a moral absolutist.&nbsp; I don't care how people justify in their own actions, if they rape, torture, murder (without damn good reasons) then they ARE evil.&nbsp; Now, can there be extenuating circumstances to specific acts?&nbsp; Of course.&nbsp; Torturing a villain to find out where the bomb is before it goes off may be justified in one instance.&nbsp; Routinely torturing Bosnians because they are Bosnians and you are a Serb, is not justifiyable in any way.&nbsp; You are evil.Good and evil are not absolutes, you may not be able to prove them mathematically, but as the man once said about pornography, &quot;you know it when you see it&quot;, and you can make common sense judgement calls, which is why we have juries and judges to make decisions on matters of this sort.DB</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Drifter Bob, post: 1771028, member: 17723"] The American soldiers who performed atrocities such as the MaiLai (sp) massacre were EVIL. That does not preclude their changing their alignment later, but yes, they were evil. But as bad as it can be, the American army is not like the SS in WW II. there are evil people in US army, and hard core combat conditions do tend to promote that, but in the current US army at any rate, there is an effort to combat that. There are rules in the US army that if something unethical is going on you can refuse to go along with it. In the SS there is a good chance you would be shot or put into a punishment Battallion. SS doctrine [i]wanted[/i] their troops to be lawful evil. Now, say, the US army in the Philipines in the Spanish American war in 1904 say, were probably much more like the SS. Regardless, there are lines that if you cross them, you are evil. So I suppose in a broad sense, yes, I am a moral absolutist. I don't care how people justify in their own actions, if they rape, torture, murder (without damn good reasons) then they ARE evil. Now, can there be extenuating circumstances to specific acts? Of course. Torturing a villain to find out where the bomb is before it goes off may be justified in one instance. Routinely torturing Bosnians because they are Bosnians and you are a Serb, is not justifiyable in any way. You are evil. Good and evil are not absolutes, you may not be able to prove them mathematically, but as the man once said about pornography, "you know it when you see it", and you can make common sense judgement calls, which is why we have juries and judges to make decisions on matters of this sort. DB [/QUOTE]

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