Nefarious character or gullible fool?
Short comment on an article by George F. Smith
Sarah Fitz-Claridge
![[photo of
Sarah Fitz-Claridge]](../Images/sarah2.jpg)
Clearly up to no good
N.B. This comment is on something written by George F. Smith, not (as I mistakenly first thought) George H. Smith, author of the wonderful Atheism: The case against God.
In The Laissez Faire Electronic Times, Vol 1, No 31, George F. Smith says darkly:
If a crisis presents an opportunity, an endless crisis presents endless opportunities. With bin Laden off the radar, the administration is setting sights on Hussein. Is he now the linchpin of world terror or just the one we might get away with killing? Have we reviewed all tyrants and found him the most imminently threatening?
What is this asking you to believe about yourself?
Suppose you think that Saddam Hussein needs to be disarmed, deposed and replaced by a democratic government. George F. Smith is asking you to believe one of two things:
- you are a nefarious character (in league with the US government and other reprehensible scoundrels) who thinks that Saddam Hussein is not a bad chap who should be taken out to protect the people of the world from whatever dreadful wrongs he might do next, but merely someone “we might get away with killing” OR
- you are a gullible fool who has been taken in by the dastardly US government's anti-Saddam rhetoric.
If you came to this conclusion long before the US/UK governments did (and let's face it, only a matter of ten days ago, Tony Blair seemed unconvinced), 2 would imply that you were taken in by people who did not themselves hold that opinion. So it follows that George F. Smith is asking me to believe 1 – that I am an immoral person who wants Saddam taken out merely because he is someone “we might get away with killing.”
Well thanks, George F. Smith, you've convinced me: we shouldn't lift a finger to take any action until Saddam has, say, dropped a nuclear bomb on New York.
Criticism welcome! If you would like to comment, email me at sarah
fitz-claridge.com.
Transcript of my US Libertarian Party National Convention 2002 speech, Is that a burqa on the bedroom floor?
The Burqa Incident, an article about how I was expelled from the Libertarian Party National Convention room and (allegedly) narrowly escaped spending the night in jail being interrogated by the FBI. Published in the The Laissez Faire Electronic Times, Vol 1, No 23, July 22, 2002.
Transcript of my Youth 4 Liberty Summer Camp 2002 speech, War, Free Trade and Liberty – Strange Bedfellows?
My article, Which is the Big Lie? Don't trust Fisk, look for yourself
Questionable Motives? Published in Taking Children Seriously. An editorial I wrote when my motives were impugned after I wrote an article arguing that it is perfectly possible for children to be protected without age-based laws.
Transcript of my Libertarian International Fall Convention 2001 speech, given in Prague, European Union: Liberty or Leviathan? Published by the Libertarian Alliance.
Copyright © 2002, 2003 Sarah Fitz-Claridge