Day By Day

Friday, August 22, 2008

Moral Equivalency?

John Hinderaker over at Power Line takes on Obama's latest absurdity.

In an address yesterday THE ONE suggested that Russia's invasion of Georgia was morally equivalent to America's invasion of Iraq, to which the Hindrocket replied:
So our "charging into" Iraq--with dozens of allies, supported by a U.N. resolution, as a last resort after six months of build-up and negotiations, to unseat one of the cruelest dictators of modern times who had twice invaded neighboring states, was in violation of more than a dozen U.N. resolutions and was responsible for the deaths of something like two million people, who was shooting at American aircraft and had tried to assassinate a former President of the United States, in Obama's childish mind, was just like Russia's "charging into" Georgia, which resembles Saddam's Iraq in no respect. And, of course, we invaded a horrifying charnel-house so as to establish a democracy, whereas Russia invaded a peaceful democracy that it wants to re-incorporate into its empire.
Read it here.

Responding to the same, Victor Davis Hanson writes:

Aside from the silliness of these statements, the problem for Obama, again, is that incrementally they really do start to add up—America's "tragic history," the mini-sermon on decline to the 7-year-old, waffling exegesis to Rick Warren about our own evil, the confessions to the cheering Berliners about our transgressions—and these doubts are enhanced rather than ameliorated by Michelle Obama's various rantings, and the creepy things former associates like Ayers, Wright, and Pfleger have said about America and its culture. Some disinterested observer from Mars might adduce that the Obamas at this point can't help it, since the 'everybody believes it' anti-American message they absorbed was of long duration and reinforced where they went to school, where they worshiped, and where they worked.
Read it here.

Hanson has a very good point. More and more it is apparent that THE ONE! has fully internalized the adversarial narrative promulgated by the academic/activist left. He is the product of a remarkably parochial past that severely constrains his appreciation of the world in which we live. Americans should think long and hard before voting for such an intellectually and experientially crippled candidate.