Sqad - //Absolutely correct, but I think that the point that is being made is that HAD you experienced such conditions then you opinion may be different.....maybe. Usually, one hopes, that experience does bring something relevant and extra to the debate. //
I think that is absolutely true.
But the fact that I don't have direct experience does not my view either ignorant of arrogant, it makes it my view.
A lack of direct experience should never bar anyone from having a viewpoint, and being free to express it.
If I discuss my daughter's recent childbirth with her, I offer my opinion and view on a variety of aspects of her experience. Because I never have, and never can experience what she has, that does not make my view arrogant and ignorant.
Similarly, when she offered her view on my tests for prostate cancer, her view was not ignorant or arrogant because she cannot know what she is talking about in terms of direct experience.
If that were the case, then the only people able to post on this thread would be serving or ex-military personnel, and how valid a discussion would that be?