Physical versus Moral Courage
Over the last couple of years we have had some unfortunate examples of how people with demonstrated physical courage (e.g. John McCain, Colin Powell, and John Kerry) have failed when it was moral courage that was asked of them.
In all three cases, it would appear they have allowed their political ambitions to compromise their moral convictions.
In the case of McCain and Powell, one suspects that both secretly despise Bush and recognize his many failings yet they both publicly embrace him. Probably because they would otherwise forfeit the support of the Republican apparatus in any future political endeavors.
One gets the impression that the backroom Republican strategists have very cleverly played McCain versus Giuliani… “Rudy, you have to support GW now if you don’t want us to nominate John in 2008″ and vice reverse. And, sad to say, they have both fallen for it. Risking death, imprisonment, and torture in your 20’s doesn’t mean you will vote your convictions in your 50’s.
In the case of Kerry, he did flip-flop. I have no doubt that Kerry (along with many other members of Congress) doubted the wisdom of invading Iraq but he was reading the polls and planned to run for President so he voted in support of the invasion. Jumping out of a Swift boat in your twenties with an M-16 doesn’t mean you will vote your convictions when you are in your 50’s.
And as for Powell, one can only shake one’s head. Kerry never ranked higher than lieutenant. Powell was a General and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Powell must have known what a disaster the Iraq invasion was going to be. He must have had a pretty good idea of both the human and financial cost. And he must have been fairly sure that there were no WMD’s and no connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam. Since he does not appear to have any further political ambitions one is puzzled as to his motivations in supporting such a disasterous and incompetently planned debacle.
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