I’ve been getting a reader shellacking for being too polite to Tom Friedman. The basic point he misses, I think, is that the notion that the U.N. confers “moral authority” is itself a highly questionable assumption. As an empirical matter, it may be true that the U.N. gives “moral” authority in the eyes of many Arabs. But that is in part due to their delusions about their own position – delusions we need to challenge not appease. More broadly, a reader nails it:
I’m a little surprised that you let Thomas Friedman off so easily in his latest response. He writes that “some important moral authority was sacrificed in not getting U.N. approval and there is no way around it.” I would agree with this statement if the intent were to highlight the abdication of moral responsibility that we have seen on display at the United Nations. Unfortunately, the claim made here by Mr. Friedman and echoed by countless others seems to be that without the sanction of the U.N. any action undertaken by one of its members is a priori lacking in moral authority (or at least that authority is diminished to some degree). This is a rather curious claim, since it implies that an action’s moral quality is conferred upon it by the pronouncements of a deliberative body — in this instance, a deliberative body composed of a number of countries whose own moral stature is questionable. Leaving aside the objections raised by ethical relativism or the thornier issues concerning the ultimate seat of moral authority, I’m sure that Mr. Friedman would agree that sticking hot needles into the eyes of newborn infants is a morally reprehensible act regardless of whether the Pope, the U.N., the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, or the New York Times takes a stand against it. The moral worth of the current actions conducted by the United States against the perpetrator of acts no less evil is neither diminished nor determined by the objections of nations whose moral compass is guided by self-interest and opportunism.
Amen. In fact, I think the absence of France in the coalition is a far more convincing piece of evidence of its moral authority.
The Dish 