April 17, 2005
Left Take Note
Glenn Reynolds has an excellent post up regarding, in general, the Bush Doctrine and the Left. It will help if you follow the links to color in the underlying mosaic of information.
Glenn's post would be just another remarkable post by the Instapundit; I am linking for something quite special: an MLK quote on appropriate (ie, Christian) use of violence. Please go here for the quote and the background.
One thing that has not troubled me as a Christian (and a regular American joe) is that it is not only OK, but imperative, to kill, sometimes. The no-war, no-way, no-how crowd exists, even thrives, for one simple reason: those they criticize have a conscience. If you are one of that crowd, ask yourself: if you were to protest against Saddam Hussein or Adolph Hitler or Josef Stalin the way you protest against George W. Bush, would you be alive today? Would you have all of your testicles/eyeballs/fingers/family members?
One of your heroes (and very much one of mine) understood that you must know your opposition. Martin Luther King, Jr. held Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer as one of his moral influences. Bonhoeffer was a pre-Nazi Germany ethicist and pacifist, but realized that Nazi Germany could not be "solved" with Gandhi-style pacifism. Bonhoeffer was executed only months before Germany's surrender in 1945 for plotting to assassinate Hitler.
It does not matter whether you chant your love mantra or scream insanely at the top of your lungs if your final destination either way is an industrial tree-shredder. True evil understands only one thing: greater violence to it than it is capable of delivering.
The war on Islamofascist Terror is not a gentlemen's war. It most certainly shares no parallels with the 20th century race struggles this country has seen. If you did not read MLK's quote cited above, here it is: “if your opponent has a conscience, then follow Gandhi. But if you enemy has no conscience, like Hitler, then follow Bonhoeffer.”
Sometimes killing is the only moral thing left to do.
Posted by nopundit at April 17, 2005 05:36 PM
N.O.P.,
This is a textbook strawman argument: you set up the "Left" as being fanatically against any sort of violence, even as a last means of defence, and then tear down this obviously impractical stance.
You may have noticed that when Bush went after the Taliban for haboring Al Quaeda, you didn't see the same scale of protest that you did against the Iraq war. In Afganistan, it was clear that there was a regime that overtly supported and protected the terrorists (indeed, the leader of the terrorists) who attacked the WTC on September 11, 2001. I won't claim that it was unanimous support, but the big argument seemed to be whether to invade or to just nuke outright.
Iraq, however, was not a response to 9/11. It was completely contrived. There was no immediate threat. It could not be done on the cheap. They did not greet us with flowers. There was no global coalition. Iraq had _nothing_ to do with 9/11, nor were they capable of doing anything besides sitting in the box we'd built for them.
Were there good reasons to invade? Maybe, who knows. We never got to debate good reasons. Instead we just had the lies and fabrications of the Bush administration to cajole the country into a war of choice, into long-term occupation, into paying the lion's share of lives and resources to depose a toothless dictator.
Would I use violence to defend myself? I would and have. Was I against the invasion of Iraq? I was and am.
As always, Ken, thanks for providing a forum for debate.
later,
nicfit212
ew, it took out all of my paragraph separations...
Posted by: nicfit212 at April 18, 2005 11:26 AMI agree, sometimes killing people for your own self defence is necessary. My objection is when people think god is on their side, and say prayers to help them. Jesus preached 'turn the other cheek'. Taking up arms is against all Christian values, and we should take note of that.
Posted by: tony at April 28, 2005 11:29 PMMore bad apples, the bushel is getting rotten
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/20/international/asia/20abuse.html?hp&ex=1116648000&en=6cca0512a38427c3&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Posted by: nicfit212 at May 20, 2005 08:46 AM