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In reply to the discussion: Fleeing the country to avoid prosecution makes Snowden a coward. [View all]Tom Rinaldo
(22,912 posts)So every Chinese dissodent who "fled China to avoid prosecution" after Tianamen Square was a coward? Irregardlesss of the risks they subjected themselves to by confronting the Chinese government in the first place?
Before they instituted the draft lottery during the Vietman War (which I was a "winner" of) I had decided to go to Canada if drafted rather than fight, and potentially kill others, in a war I believed was wrong. I was still a teen - maybe I was 20 can't quite remember. I had never travelled anywhere to speak of, never been "independent". I commuted to my college at the time. The idea of suddently moving to another country where I knew no one was, quite frankly, scary to me. Though being in the army would have naturally frightened me also, had the U.S. been attacked like it was on 9/11 I would have signed up for it I did not want to become a person without a nation, an exile for life. But I felt strongly that it would have been wrong to fight in the Viet Nam war, so so be it.
We can debate whether Edward Snowden is a hero, but to call him a coward for not wanting to potentially face life in prison over his principles is stupid. It took courage for him to throw everything he knew in life away by taking on the spy programs. By the way, I also supported Bill Maher when he got blasted for saying that the terrorists who flew planes into the Twin Towers on 9/112 weren't cowards either. They were many deplorable things, but cowards; no. Edward Snowden is no coward.