White critics of drone war and of the kill-list for US
citizens have lately been accused by black defenders of Obama of “white skin
privilege” and, more recently, by other critics of “American privilege.”
Gary Younge is neither white nor American; he’s just wrong.
And this is a
needless worry.
Over the last few
weeks there has been a distinct incongruity – to say the least – between the
agenda Obama is promoting at home and the one he defends abroad.
His justification for
targeted killings and drone strikes in foreign parts, prompted by his nomination
of a CIA director, has coincided with his advocacy for stiffer gun control and
appeals to respect human life following mass shootings.
The result is an
administration raising life and death issues in its actions and pronouncements
but being unable to talk with any moral
authority or ethical consistency
on either.
Our president, he says, lacks moral authority.
To a liberal, that's as bad as insufficiently rigid literalism is to a Bible-hammering Christian.
In short, the
credibility of a president in challenging lawless social violence in US cities
is fundamentally undermined when he has his own personal kill list in violation
of international law to terminate enemies elsewhere.
Oh, pshaw.
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