“Love must be regarded as the final flower and fruit of justice. When it is substituted for justice it degenerates into sentimentality and may become the accomplice of tyranny. Looking at the tragic contemporary scene within this frame of reference, we feel that American Christianity is all too prone to disavow its responsibilities for the preservation of our civilization against the perils of totalitarian aggression. We are well aware of the sins of all the nations, including our own, which have contributed to the chaos of our era. We know to what degree totalitarianism represents false answers to our own unsolved problems – political, economic, spiritual. Yet we believe the task of defending the rich inheritance of our civilization to be an imperative one, however much we might desire that our social system were more worthy of defense. We believe that the possibility of correcting its faults and extending its gains may be annulled for centuries if this external peril is not resolutely faced.” – Reinhold Niebuhr, defending another just and moral war, February 10, 1941.
ONE LEFTY GETS IT: Check out this story about veteran left-winger, Welsh parliamentarian, Ann Clwyd, who is now fully in favor of deposing Saddam. Money quote:
Ms Clwyd, MP for Cynon Valley, told of an under-nourished university teacher who had given birth in prison and begged guards for milk to feed her child. The guards refused and the baby died. “For three days she held that baby in her arms and would not give the body up. After three days due to the 60-degree heat, the body of course started to smell, and [the woman] was taken away and killed.” She also told of a 15-year-old boy tortured and crucified, and pinned against the prison window. When he begged for water a prisoner who came to his aid was beaten up. She found many refugees had been ethnically cleansed for being Kurds. “That’s the reality of Saddam’s Iraq,” she said. “When I hear people calling for more time, I say, who is going to speak up for those victims? Who is to help the victims of Saddam’s regime unless we do it?”
Exactly. Who? In the end, it will be a Republican president, against the full force of the allegedly progressive movement.