Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Atoning for America

He had gone to Europe not as the voice of his nation, but as a missionary with a message of atonement for its errors. Which were, as he perceived them -- arrogance, dismissiveness, Guantanamo, deficiencies in its attitudes toward the Muslim world, and the presidency of Harry Truman and his decision to drop the atomic bomb, which ended World War II.

No sitting American president had ever delivered indictments of this kind while abroad, or for that matter at home, or been so ostentatiously modest about the character and accomplishment of the nation he led. He was mediator, an agent of change, a judge, apportioning blame -- and he was above the battle.

7 comments:

Tecumseh said...

Five decades of teaching in colleges and universities across the land, portraying the U.S. as a power mainly responsible for injustice and evil, whose military might was ever a danger to the world -- a nation built on the fruits of greed, rapacity and racism -- have had their effect. The products of this education find nothing strange in a president quick to focus on the theme of American moral failure.
Nothing strange? Of course not. Blaming Amerikkka first is at the very core of the pinko mind -- the alpha and omega of the Pepean worldview. And blaming is not enough. You gotta prostrate yourself on the ground, self-flaggellate with all force, denounce everyone that came before, and revel in this display.

Pepe le Pew said...

[no sitting president has] been so ostentatiously modest about the character and accomplishment of the nation he led.

a breath of fresh air in an ocean of chest=beating knuckle-draggers.

Pepe le Pew said...

You gotta prostrate yourself on the ground, self-flaggellate with all force

how else do you propose to expiate ?

Tecumseh said...

Why atone in the first place? For what?

Arelcao Akleos said...

For getting in the way of the triumph of Da Socs... that's what the whole Obamaklean game is about.

Tecumseh said...

Mr Rot, Mr Rot -- review your catechism: whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Tecumseh said...

Matthew 5:39.