Jonah Goldberg partly redeems himself…
How valid, from a moral standpoint is the “we broke it, we have the moral duty (responsibility) to fix it” argument, when it comes to Iraq? Here’s Jonah Goldberg in the pages of the National Review Online:
Barack Obama says preventing genocide isn’t a good enough reason to stay in Iraq.
“By that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now — where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife — which we haven’t done,” he told the Associated Press. “We would be deploying unilaterally and occupying the Sudan, which we haven’t done. Those of us who care about Darfur don’t think it would be a good idea.”
It’s worth pointing out a key difference between the potential genocide in Iraq and the heart-wrenching slaughters in Congo and Sudan: The latter aren’t our fault. But if genocide unfolds in Iraq after American troops depart, it would be hard to argue that we weren’t at least partly to blame.
Goldberg’s NRO colleague, John Derbyshire, chimes in:
And the argument that moral responsibility for whatever happens rests on us is not clear to me. Where were our intentions not honorable? At which point during the last four and a half years were we trying to incite Iraqis to kill Iraqis? At which point were we doing anything other than try to help them—however clumsily and sometimes wrong-headedly—to get their act together as a nation? How long do we have to struggle with such efforts before our moral responsibility can fairly be considered to have been discharged?
Do answers to Derbyshire’s questions move us in the direction of a consensus regarding the moral responsibility of the US remaining in Iraq? Would you have asked the same questions to ascertain the morality of remaining militarily involved in that country?
Read other responses to Goldberg’s column here
Today’s FSP–Jonah Goldberg
If you’re an FSP, then you’re going to have a tough time being successful in this unforgiving world. If, however, you’re an FSP and a journalist, then you’re a perfect candidate for an editorial slot at the Los Angeles Times. All of which leads me to wonder whether Jonah Goldberg has ever taken an introductory course in International Relations? If he has, then why does he not know the definition of “realism” used in IR and if he hasn’t why is he writing about topics dealing with international politics in the editorial pages of the LA Times?
God, Morality, and Human Rights
Remember at the beginning of the course that we discussed different foundations for assessing the morality of our actions. I mentioned briefly divine command theory (go back to your notes if you don’t remember)–the belief that something is moral just because God has said it is.
Some, including President Bush, argue that human rights are not only God-given, but that without God, they (human rights) would not exist. What does Plato have to say about this? Here’s an excerpt from an interesting letter from a reader of Andrew’s Sullivan’s blog.
Ponnuru believes that without God there could be no human rights. And many others – not all of them Christianists – seem to agree.
But there’s a very serious problem for this view, one which philosophers have known about since Plato wrote his dialogue Euthyphro. Unfortunately, it never gets mentioned in popular discussions of theism and morality.
The problem is simple. Ponnuru claims that human rights – and moral values more generally – derive their authority from the fact that God has ordained them. (This is the position philosophers call “theological voluntarism” or “divine command theory.”) But what if God had ordained murder and rape as the morally obligatory ways of treating others?
You can read the rest of the letter at the link above.
Links to EIPA-related material
Hello all:
I’ve often thought that it would be useful to maintain a post-course link to all of you where we could keep each other informed of EIPA-related material that we’ve come across. This “blog” marks an initial attempt to achieve that objective. I’ll generally just provide links to what others have been writing/saying about topics related to EIPA, so don’t expect any deeper analysis on my part.
Welcome, and feel free to make friends, classmates, family members, and your parole officer, aware of this site.
JD
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