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| Authored by: gadfly on Thursday, March 13 2003 @ 11:10 AM CST |
The Americans have on occasion been hypocrites; however, the worst crime of all is not hypocrisy. That should always be kept in perspective!
Fair enough. Clearly, though, it's not the consistency or inconsistency of the American position itself thats being criticized, or else the same critical voices would be directed at Chirac (who isn't generally thought of as a world peace advocate).
Rather, inconsistency and hypocrisy is important because it suggests the existence of a hidden agenda. There are malicious dictators spread around the globe, in Iraq, Africa, South America, Southest Asia. Removing a particular might be a good thing, but the moral high ground is lost when moral arguments are used as weapons only after the enemy-of-the-week has been chosen for other reasons.
This has been the unstated position of a lot of social-justice types, I think, over the Iraq situation. They don't mind to see Saddam removed, but they would disdain to support a US invasion because they believe their morality would simply be a tool of the US administration. This is why they've come out in favour of the UN.
It's rather like the position of a nerdy high-school kid who's suddenly invited, out of the blue, to hang out with some popular kids somewhere. He suspects their motives, suspects they just want his help with their homework, but the situation itself offers such promise (even with the possibility of exploitation) that's it 's a tempting offer.[ Parent ]
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