Friday, December 11, 2009

Palin, Gingrich Applaud Obama's Nobel Speech

Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and Pat Buchanan liked the speech. Not that any one of them matters, but their lauding of Obama's speech says a lot about the rightwing. They like Obama's speech on "just war" but don't like his speeches on diplomacy. Their lust for war is disturbing.

Obama's speech played to that idea, that war can be justified.

I liked Obama's speech. But I didn't like the gist of the speech. No war is ever just and it can't ever be justified. Not morally. On a strictly moral basis, the death penalty isn't moral and neither is abortion. We should stop trying to morally justify war. We always mix up morality and reality.

Realities must be faced as we work toward becoming more just people. I think that's what Obama was reckoning with in the speech.

We live on a planet that's constantly in a state of war. Human beings haven't figured out how to get over themselves. We seem to be consistently working toward our own demise, whether it be changing the planet's climate or developing nukes to blow up hordes of people.

There isn't any country in the world that's going to dismantle their military, lay down their arms and stop fighting. Terrorists aren't going to stop attacking because they have no moral compass whatsoever.

The military should be reserved for defense, and I'm not sure that the war in Afghanistan is a defensive measure, but Obama has deemed it as such and so I'll trust his judgement.

But we can't give up on aspiring to be peaceful. The rightwing, though, doesn't have that aspiration.
Pat Buchanan says Obama didn't offer "gauzy hope and expectation""

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