Obama's Moral Case For War

[NJMaverick]

Quote:In the President's Libya speech tonight, he'll have to deflect critics who ask why we're taking on Gaddafi--but not other murderous regimes. Peter Beinart on Why Consistency in Foreign Policy is Overrated.

There are plenty of smart objections to America’s Libya intervention. But when President Obama addresses the nation on Monday night, he should rebut the stupidest one: that America shouldn’t wage humanitarian war in Libya because we’re not doing so in Congo, Zimbabwe and every other nasty dictatorship on earth


The consistency argument, it’s important to understand, has nothing to do with Congo and Zimbabwe. Most of the people who invoke those ill-fated countries showed no interest in them before the Libya debate and will go back to ignoring them once Libya is off the front page. Ask someone who demands moral consistency in humanitarian war how exactly they propose to intervene in Congo and you will quickly realize that the call for moral consistency is actually a call for immoral consistency. The point of invoking the horrors of Congo is not to convince the US to act to stop the horrors of Congo; it is to ensure that, out of respect for the raped, murdered and maimed in Central Africa, we allow innocents to be raped, murdered and maimed in North Africa as well. The Congolese, presumably, will find it comforting to know that the great powers are as just as indifferent to savagery in other lands as they are to the savagery in theirs.


There will always be horrors that outside powers cannot or will not prevent. But the fact that they cannot be stopped everywhere is no reason not to try to stop them somewhere.

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[jaxx]

I think if the UN hadn't moved on the no-fly zone those who so loudly oppose it would be screaming for something to be done. They were doing it before and shut up fast, only to begin the tirades about how it's wrong now.

In my opinion the reason Libya was cited is due to them using planes and tanks against the people. It's sort of like Sarah Palin flying around killing wolves out of an aircraft......there is no sport to it. It's just killing.

[Cha]

Peter Beinart makes a good point. I had no idea there were those saying we shouldn't have helped Libya because we can't go into parts of Africa.

We help where we can.. it's our moral imperitive.

As far as "consistency" do they mean like they consistently twist themselves into pretzels over President Obama in anything they can and consistently not recognize anything positive?