July 27, 2004

The result is not re-thinking...

AOG writes:

...However, what I find more interesting is the lack of critical comments about the lack of action in Sudan by the current administration. Normally Bush would be getting beaten up on a regular basis for this. But the problem is that Bush has been doing exactly what the Left claims it should have done with regard to Iraq — working only through the UN and other multi-national organizations. If this becomes a campaign issue, it won’t be pretty for the Democratic Party or Senator John Kerry. The French veto of even sanctions against the government of Sudan for its sponsorship of mass rape, mass murder, ethnic cleansing and slavery might upset even some of the faithful...
"might upset even some of the faithful." My guess is that it won't. I suspect that a lot of the preposterously virulent hatred inspired by Bush is precisely because he poses just such questions to the "faithful." Thereby prodding them to confront an emptiness inside.

Any leftish person who really cares about human rights would have said that they are GLAD that millions were freed from the unspeakable cruelties of the Taliban and the Ba'athists. That it was a GOOD thing. Well, we've seen how many of the "faithful" are honest this way. Maybe one or two percent.

The rest have failed the test. Shoving their faces in it once again will just make them angrier. If Bush tries to do anything in Sudan, we will instantly hear that it's about OIL. (Even though it's the French who are clinging to Sudanese oil contracts.) That will be the excuse for not supporting the President. Or that the Republicans are really "fascists," so those who attack them can still call themselves "anti-fascist," even as they support hideous dictators.

We are in a time of great change. And that means it is a time when people look inside to their own philosophy, especially political philosophy, to give them new answers. Many people are looking inside and finding NOTHING. And the result is not re-thinking, it is ANGER and denial.

* Update: Looks like the Sudan sneers have already begun: It's just domestic politics; Bush don't understand the nuances; there are lots of hell-holes in Africa, so why pick this one; the problem's impossible to solve.....and Bush isn't doing enough.

Posted by John Weidner at July 27, 2004 8:04 AM
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