See, I Told You So

Steve Consilvio’s reply to my Torture blog is a perfect example of of the intellectual debate that goes on amongst the MyMac writers. If only the politicians debating the issues were as honest and specific as those of us here. One of the place that I always tell me students I would enjoy going back in history to witness would be the Lincoln-Douglas debates. The quality of the thought those men expoused would have made the founding fathers proud.

Lincoln spoke with a simple, clear logic, using language and ideas that anyone in the audience would understand and grasp. Douglas, used a “flowery” intellectual prose that many of the witnesses of the time commented was as lyrical as the best songs of the time. These two styles as opposite as they were kept the audience and readers riveted. For many Americans, those debates finally framed the real issues behind the patched and repatched schism the country was facing. Today, we can be grateful, that virtually word for word of those debates have been preserved.

As for a rebuttal to Steve’s “Integrity” piece. Ask yourself one question based on Steve’s own words, “Abraham Lincoln did everything that Saddam Hussein did”. This is a ridiculous notion. Lincoln pardoned thousands of soldiers for deserting, a military crime punishable by hanging. Southern prisoners of war were treated quite well for the time, unlike their Northern brethren, especially those who suffered at Andersonville. Yes, Lincoln did suspend Habeas Corpus. Had he not, the out come of the war would have been much more in doubt. But to put him in a league with Hussein, that is intellectual folly.

Peace is always the highest form of integrity, but as humans we continually come up short. War is an aweful, disgusting waste of human life. Unfortunately, so is corruption of power on the scale that Hussein practiced. I pray for all those innocent lives lost and bodies damaged. Sometimes, sadly the only way to free people of tyranny is by force. The lives lost are a sad but inspiring trade off for the freedom the masses now have the opportunity to pursue.