Obama as Hamlet
2010-01-21 - by
President Obama just sent 30,000 soldiers to fight in Kabul so he’s got to be a little shocked to find himself branded as ‘soft’ on terrorism but there’s a reason: Obama as Hamlet. Obama-of-the-Divided-Mind.
On one hand the President’s launching killer drones like crazy and dropping robot bombs out of the sky over Pakistan onto the heads of terrorists and blowing them to smithereens – and on the other hand he’s fighting for the ‘rights’ of the terrorists and explaining the nobility of trying them in New York courtrooms rather than military tribunals.
Obama the Fighter flies to Oslo and looks the liberals in the eye and says he’s discovered evil forces in the world and means to do something about them – but Obama as Hamlet can’t bear the wickedness of racial profiling at airline counters, even to catch bombers with plastic explosives stitched into their underwear.
One Obama talks about terrorists and sounds like George Bush at the Alamo, but the other flies to Cairo and with perfect cadences carefully explains how Islam is a ‘Great Religion’ and adds ‘Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent terrorism’ – but in the next breath comes face to face with the fact Al Qaeda’s suicide bombers are Muslims and not Episcopalians or Catholics.
Years ago when General Sherman, who burned Atlanta, said ‘War is Hell’ he didn’t just mean physical hell he meant moral hell too – that when you leave yourself no choice but to shoot the other fellow before he shoots you you’re in a mess because one way you end up with blood on your hands or the other you end up dead and neither is particularly virtuous.
General Sherman (who people back then said was crazy) decided the only solution was to go on and burn most of Georgia and South Carolina and regret it afterwards. But President Obama’s not a crazy general, he’s highly educated (at the best American universities) so he figures there’s just got to be a moral logic that justifies both blowing terrorists up and protecting their rights – but instead he’s finding out he’s crossed one of those invisible lines into a place where reason and logic don’t seem to do him any good.
The President’s in a fix: All poor Hamlet had to wrestle with was his conscience on one side and his murdering stepfather on the other. Obama’s wrestling with his conscience and water boarding and bombing Muslims and standing up for terrorists’ rights and risking American lives if he does. He’s trying to figure out how many angels can dance on the head of a pin while fighting a war with terrorists mean as snakes and crazy as loons and, in the meantime, 300 million Americans are watching him, wondering,
When it comes to war – do you reckon Hamlet can cut it?
Posted in General, National Democrats
Obama as Hamlet
2010-01-21/
President Obama just sent 30,000 soldiers to fight in Kabul so he’s got to be a little shocked to find himself branded as ‘soft’ on terrorism but there’s a reason: Obama as Hamlet. Obama-of-the-Divided-Mind.
On one hand the President’s launching killer drones like crazy and dropping robot bombs out of the sky over Pakistan onto the heads of terrorists and blowing them to smithereens – and on the other hand he’s fighting for the ‘rights’ of the terrorists and explaining the nobility of trying them in New York courtrooms rather than military tribunals.
Obama the Fighter flies to Oslo and looks the liberals in the eye and says he’s discovered evil forces in the world and means to do something about them – but Obama as Hamlet can’t bear the wickedness of racial profiling at airline counters, even to catch bombers with plastic explosives stitched into their underwear.
One Obama talks about terrorists and sounds like George Bush at the Alamo, but the other flies to Cairo and with perfect cadences carefully explains how Islam is a ‘Great Religion’ and adds ‘Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent terrorism’ – but in the next breath comes face to face with the fact Al Qaeda’s suicide bombers are Muslims and not Episcopalians or Catholics.
Years ago when General Sherman, who burned Atlanta, said ‘War is Hell’ he didn’t just mean physical hell he meant moral hell too – that when you leave yourself no choice but to shoot the other fellow before he shoots you you’re in a mess because one way you end up with blood on your hands or the other you end up dead and neither is particularly virtuous.
General Sherman (who people back then said was crazy) decided the only solution was to go on and burn most of Georgia and South Carolina and regret it afterwards. But President Obama’s not a crazy general, he’s highly educated (at the best American universities) so he figures there’s just got to be a moral logic that justifies both blowing terrorists up and protecting their rights – but instead he’s finding out he’s crossed one of those invisible lines into a place where reason and logic don’t seem to do him any good.
The President’s in a fix: All poor Hamlet had to wrestle with was his conscience on one side and his murdering stepfather on the other. Obama’s wrestling with his conscience and water boarding and bombing Muslims and standing up for terrorists’ rights and risking American lives if he does. He’s trying to figure out how many angels can dance on the head of a pin while fighting a war with terrorists mean as snakes and crazy as loons and, in the meantime, 300 million Americans are watching him, wondering,
When it comes to war – do you reckon Hamlet can cut it?
Posted in General, National Democrats