Morality in the Muck

Chicken hawk and military deserter George W. Bush doesn’t want to do anything to halt the ongoing horror in southern Lebanon and northern Israel because he thinks that it is bringing “clarity” to the governments in the region.

What he means is “This is the kind of shitfire we can throw down on you if you don’t submit – in advance – to any and all of our requirements for peace. How do you like it, assholes?” I threw in that last part because I’d bet that’s the way he thinks – like a drunken frat boy with a D-plus academic average.

I have foolishly tried to use a moral argument in the past to suggest that the U.S. should urgently seek to put a stop to the slaughter. I was saying that it’s wrong to kill people, and I actually got a little heat about that, but never mind. Today I discovered an essay that brings a little clarity to me on the subject of war, killing and morality.

As Phillip Slater says in The Huffington Post:

To talk of morality in the context of international conflict is oxymoronic. Until there is a viable system of international government with agreed-upon ethical principles and enforceable laws, bringing morality into discussions of war and conflict is hypocritical posturing.

The fact is, everyone engaging in mass killing of civilians has no moral standing whatever, regardless of provocation or motive or alleged instruction from God.

Get it, everybody? Once you go to war there is no morality. Truly, all’s fair. Winning is the only thing. We are willing to accept atrocities committed by the military that are orders of magnitude more horrific than anything we will put up with on the streets. Slater again:

Supposing a man goes berserk, barricades himself in his house with women and children as hostages and starts shooting at the neighbors. The police come. They spend hours trying to get the man to surrender. They would never think that blowing up the house to get the ‘bad guy’ was a moral act. Or even a sensible one. That’s because police operate in a more or less civilized societal context with a more or less unified set of ethical rules.

Not so the parties to war. In this case, both Israel and Hezbollah continue to drop bombs and shoot rockets into innocent populations. The reasons each side gives for doing so are slightly different, but all are cruel, stupid and wrong.

I should have thought of this before. War lets us drop the pretense of caring about life. It means never having to say you’re sorry. Of course if the Bush administration vigorously pursued an immediate cease-fire, we could probably stop the killing and destruction long enough to talk out a more lasting solution. The U.S. can’t perform such a miracle alone, but the world can’t do it without the U.S.

If, as you have said, Mr. Bush, Jesus is your role model, have you asked yourself lately what he would do?

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11 Replies to “Morality in the Muck”

  1. I’ve always had the impression that Jesus would shit in the palm of his hand and shove it in Bush’s face. After all, you can’t reason with a moral incompetent like George. But, truly, somebody ought to take a stand against murder with more influence than Kofi Annan.

  2. The UN at least have a draft plan now to stop the bombing, though Bush had wanted a ‘suspension of hostilities’ rather than ‘cessation’, but France and UK seem to have persuaded him otherwise. Still has to go to Security Council, but fingers crossed this will all stop soon . . . though what looks good on paper is of course not that easy to enact when everything’s so volatile.

  3. well, many evangelicals are seeing the slaughter as a postive thing apparently, because it supposedly brings the world closer to the “Second Coming”. I shudder to think that Bush could very well be in that group — especially since the author of the left behind books went to speak at the White House… scary

  4. I agree the delay has been SHAMEFUL, I have been ranting on my own blog about it, and I was just trying to be positive, but now I feel disheartened cos I don’t think the UN will take on board the changes to the proposals that the Arab League wants: an immediate ceasefire and total withdrawal of Israel from Lebanon, and also from Shebaa Farms.

  5. “like a drunken frat boy with a D-plus academic average.”

    Actually, Bush’s cumulative GPA for his 4 years at Yale was higher than Kerry’s. I.e. 77 versus 76. So much for Kerry being portrayed as the intellectual giant. Both had C academic averages.

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