Through the miracle of modern media magic, the Joint Special Operations Command is transformed from “Dick Cheney’s Assassination Squad” into “Barack Obama’s Justice League”.
Some great background on SEAL Team 6. Related: Geronimo!
Michael Moore’s opinion on the killing of bin Laden? Let’s just say… predictable.
I’m glad President Obama hates terrorists. Kinda wish he hated all of them, though.
David Brooks slaps together another dog’s breakfast of an essay, this time on bin Laden. He manages to relate a few interesting biographical facts, but then closes with this dissonant chord: “I just wish there were a democratic Bin Laden, that amid all the Arab hunger for dignity and freedom there was another inexplicable person with the ability to frame narratives and propel action - for good, not evil.” Might as well wish for a democratic Hitler or a humanitarian Stalin.
Andrew Klavan underscores the notion of justice: “This is a harsh truth because justice is a harsh good. It is not gentle like mercy. It is not stagnant like equality. It is not a soft, shapeless word to be slapped on bumper stickers or chanted during rallies in order to inflame one’s own sense of virtue. Justice is an exact description of a specific social interaction: the awarding to men and women of the outcome they deserve. This does not exist in nature, not in this life. It’s something we do, something we give and often, too often, when evil has been committed, it has to be delivered at the end of a gun. There is sometimes simply no other way.”
Interesting bumper sticker finds at Legal Insurrection. The first one reminds me of a great line from the movie, Zulu. A nervous private, on the verge of hysteria after contemplating the ominous odds before the Battle of Rorke’s Drift, is asking the Sergeant Major, “Why us?” And the burly, unflappable Sergeant Major remarks in his soft baritone, “Because there’s just us. And nobody else.”
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I just wish there were a democratic Bin Laden...
ReplyDeleteSounds like something Agent 86 would have said.
If only he'd used his terrorism for niceness instead of evil.
Precisely.
ReplyDelete"Mr. Witt! When I have the impertinence to climb into your pulpit to deliver a sermon, then you can tell me my duty."
ReplyDelete“Why us?” Thank you for reminding me of that chilling moment in Zulu.
ReplyDeleteIn a similar vein:
'Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil.'
LotR is lifted to greatness by the superb dialog Tolkein wrote.