Rosemary Roberts, of the News and Record, launches a strange and logically incoherent attack on the President. Interestingly, the News and Record wants letter writers to obey a rule of: It's fine to disagree with one another's opinions, but please attack ideas, not people
Excerpt from the RR piece:
[GWB's] tacit endorsement of Israel's massive bombing of Lebanon is winning him no friends in most of the world.
The air strikes, moreover, are the source of more White House hypocrisy. On the one hand, Bush refuses to urge Israel to halt the bombing; on the other hand, he has offered to send Lebanon humanitarian aid because it's being bombed. Hmmmm.
Right or wrong, President Bush is supporting Israel's attempt to dislodge an entrenched, Syrian-backed puppet government that is occupying Southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has dug in, amid a dense civilian population.
President Bush is also advocating aid for the Lebanese civilians who suffer terrible collateral damage in this attack.
Ms. Roberts accuses Mr. Bush of "hypocrisy" for supporting an attack on the Hezbollah army, and then helping innocent Lebanese civilians caught in the crossfire. I understand that ad hominems are more fun than logic (also easier, when you are facing a deadline and have nothing substantive to say!).
But it seems to me the only hypocrisy here is that of the international community, which has refused to enforce U.N. Security Council resolutions that required Hezbollah to leave southern Lebanon.
Israel, and Mr. Bush, may well be mistaken. Personally, I think the attack is a mistake, inflicting terrible damage on civilians without damaging the Syrian stranglehold on Lebanon. But why call them hypocritical? If you are going to attack Hezbollah, shouldn't you help the civilians that the bad guys use as cover?
No comments:
Post a Comment