Cherry-Picking Evil

[marmar]

Published on Thursday, September 12, 2013 by Common Dreams
Cherry-Picking Evil

by Robert C. Koehler


“Because these weapons can kill on a mass scale, with no distinction between soldier and infant, the civilized world has spent a century working to ban them.”

Why does the president need to address a classroom full of third-graders?

On Tuesday night — hallelujah — he stepped back from the brink of war, but in his address to the nation he spent most of his time justifying his earlier aggression toward Syria, detailing the Assad government’s single, heinous deviation from the civilized norms of war.

The ever-fresh PR stratagem of war is to cherry-pick an example of evil behavior on the part of the designated enemy and rally the outrage against it, never, never looking inward at one’s own behavior, and in our ignorance bonding as a clan or a nation or whatever in our determination to destroy the perpetrator of said evil. ...............................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/12-2

[jsr]

1. But it's the Holocaust!

[peace13]

2. Why does the president drone on and on.......n/t

[polichick]

10. It's a kinder way to kill people than gas I guess.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

3. We can't be all things to all people.

A soup kitchen can't feed all the hungry but the value of a soup kitchen is invaluable. We can't fight all the evil but we can fight evil even if it appears we are cherry-picking.

I opposed action in Syria because I genuinely believe it would create more evil than it proposed to end (and it was a blundered statement to begin with).

[geek tragedy]

4. The author is an Assad apologist

the Assad government’s single, heinous deviation from the civilized norms of war.

Yeah, that's the only time the Assad regime has failed to respect the law of war.

Yes, poison gas is a ghastly evil (though who actually used it in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta remains uncertain),

Actually, it's pretty clear the government forces used it

The point being, Mr. President, yes, yes, we feel the outrage of Syria’s horrific civil war, and no, we’re not content doing nothing about that or any other massacre taking place on the planet, whether perpetrated by ally or designated enemy

So according to the author, Assad has either committed 1 or zero war crimes.

Textbook example of how the anti-war left winds up pissing away its moral credibility by flinching when confronted with evil acts committed by people opposed to the US government.

[marmar]

6. Funny, I see being anti-war as the height of moral credibility.

[geek tragedy]

7. Ideological opposition to the exercise of power by the US

is not the same thing as being anti-war.

When people express more outrage about Assad being the target of 'aggression' than they do regarding Assad's butchery, the objection is ideological, not moral.

[L0oniX]

13. ^^^this^^^

[L0oniX]

15. I am surprised you haven't been given the pizza yet.

Isn't there a limit to how many hidden posts one can have?

[GeorgeGist]

5. This is how you kill with distinction ...

?w=584&h=389

[2naSalit]

9. +1

[tabasco]

11. Actually, correct.

If those clouds were nerve/blood/ agent, the entire city of Baghdad would be de-populated.

[xchrom]

8. du rec.

[L0oniX]

12. Noam Chompsky calls it "Mafia tactics". Got to save face and let everyone know who the boss is. n/t

[robinlynne]

14. Drones dont kill children?