Obama’s Blatant Contradiction?
We’ve all read considered the irony of a guy getting the Nobel Peace Prize as he escalates the occupation of Afghanistan. OK fine, but someone could argue plausibly that sometimes you need to fight a small war now to avoid a bigger war down the road. I disagree, but fair enough.
Yet I don’t think you can say, “And my view is consistent with Dr. Martin Luther King, who said violence cures no social ills but only causes greater ones” (paraphrasing). Really, is Obama literally contradicting himself in the below, are am I too jaded at this point to read political speeches with an ounce of charity?
To repeat: I’m not asking whether you think it’s a smart move to send troops into Afghanistan, or even more generally whether it is ever the right move to use military force and call yourself a peacemaker. What I’m asking is, can you say this without necessarily implying, “And so Martin Luther King was wrong when he made his speech in this forum” ?
