Life's Persistent Questions

When one wrong doesn't equal another wrong.

During the campaign, people, mostly liberals on the left, lamented the "fair and balance" way that major news organizations reported the er... un-factual talking points by both sides. They argue that while Kerry is not from immune from exaggerations and misleading statements , Bush lied more blatantly, with more intention, and on subjects of more importance. But the reporters, the left claimed, treat all the dis-information the same, giving the impression that both sides lied equally.

I bring this up because I had, for a while now, been puzzled by the left's objection to a war that removes a dictator/murder from power. Remember, the political left is usually the most vocal group about human rights, and the suffering of people who live half a world away under some two-bit dictator that rest of us never care to pay attention to. But once the confrontation switches to between that same two-bit dictator and the mighty U.S. government, the sympathy switches to the dictator. Clearly brutalizing thousands of people is not the moral equivalent of using military action to remove a mass murder. Then why?

Well, is it possible the basic principle behind some of the liberal movements is not freedom and equality, but an instinctual, emotional reaction to help the "underdog?" So when it's the dictator/government of (insert your favorite third-world/developing country) versus the poor farmer/political activist/Falungong follower/(insert your favorite disadvantaged minority), of course, you would fight for the latter. But when this oppressive government comes up against the A-bomb carrying, satellite riding, blackhawk jumping Uncle Sam, guess who becomes the underdog? The arguement that there are dozens of Saddam Hussein around the world, and we can't remvoe them all, is ultimately a futile one. The attempt to draw some sort of moral equivalence between the action of a paranoid, cruel dictator and a (somewhat) well-intented but poorly executed military intervention rings hallow. So, is it possible it's simple as "we like to cheer for the underdog?" I sure hope not.

posted by hedgehog @ 10:49 AM