Posted by Warner Todd Huston Dec 31st 2010 at 11:00 am in Defense and Foreign Policy, Democrats, Editorialism, Featured Story, Islam, Mainstream Media, Military, Old media, Print Journalism, Washington Post, journalism, media bias, newspapers Does anyone on the left understand right and wrong? Do any of them understand that some things humans do are morally reprehensible or is everything relative? If we could find one that understands it, it certainly won’t be Colman McCarthy. We can say this because this week the former Washington Post columnist and current director for the farcical Washington-based “Center for Teaching Peace” said that he “admires” people who “join armies” and, revealing his moral ignorance, he said he even admires those that join the Taliban’s “army.”
In a recent Washington Post piece meant to convince people that the U.S. Army is evil and that ROTC programs should be eliminated from our nation’s universities, McCarthy made the startling admission of his admiration for the Taliban’s murderous minions. And, like most leftists, he tried to dress up his admiration for immoral actions by cloaking it in the left’s favorite vehicle for misdirection: nuance.
Like most leftists McCarthy tries to split hairs saying that he isn’t “anti-soldier” by being anti-U.S. Army. He says he “admires soldiers” but just hates their work. Of course, it isn’t possible to love the troops and hate everything they do, but that is a leftist’s illogic writ large.
McCarthy wants the U.S. Army chased from our nation’s schools and thinks that ROTC is a “warrior ethic” that “taints” a school’s “intellectual purity.” This is amusing since the intellectual purity of our schools was summarily disposed of by the introduction of anti-American leftist ideology by the destructive efforts of folks like John Dewey and Charles Beard who’s efforts started at the end of the 1800s!
In any case, McCarthy treads a fine line trying to justify his “admiration” of the Taliban and his hatred of the U.S. Army. [my bold]
To oppose ROTC, as I have since my college days in the 1960s, when my school enticed too many of my classmates into joining, is not to be anti-soldier. I admire those who join armies, whether America’s or the Taliban’s: for their discipline, for their loyalty to their buddies and to their principles, for their sacrifices to be away from home. In recent years, I’ve had several Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans in my college classes. If only the peace movement were as populated by people of such resolve and daring.And therein lies his faulty sense of morality. Leaving aside the fact that there is no “Taliban Army” (because “the Taliban” isn’t a “the” but is made up rather of all sorts of different groups loosely affiliated one with the other) this cretin is equating the men and women of the U.S. military to the illiterate, murderous, oppressive members of the Taliban.
McCarthy claims he “admires” the Taliban as much as he does U.S. soldiers but I’d suggest that this is a lie.
I’d suggest he actually admires the Taliban’s killers more than he does American soldiers. After all, where are his editorials denouncing the Taliban? On the other hand, this deluded peacenik has an admittedly long history of attacking the U.S. Army and the country it protects.
The moral truth that McCarthy and his fellow left-wingers miss is that some causes that people join simply are not laudable enough to engender admiration no matter how much devotion is lent to the cause. To join the oppressive forces of the Taliban is simply nothing to admire. To become an al Qaeda “soldier of Allah” is a disgrace, not something to admire even if the joiner truly believes in the cause.
In the end, only a leftist can say that a U.S. soldier is just as admirable as a terrorist.
Big Journalism
