I was astounded when I read President Obama's address to the Nobel Committee in Oslo. If one closed their eyes and had that speech read to them one could easily surmise that it had been given by George Bush, or even, Ronald Reagan.
What a change has been wrought in so short a time. A little over a year ago this man was excoriating George Bush for being a war monger. The left had ragged on the war in Iraq, and whined about, the war in Afghanistan endlessly. Bush was an evil comparable to Hitler because he had lead us into "never ending war".
In those days the theory of "just war" was given little credence.
My how times have changed. Gone are the day's of Cindy Sheehan-who by the way- got arrested for protesting war in front of Obama's White House but was never arrested for picketing Bush's Crawford ranch. No now that we have a Democrat as President war has become-dare one say it- fashionable. Where has the outrage of our soldiers supposedly "terrorizing citizens gone? What has happened to the voices of Murtha and Kerry calling for an immediate withdrawal from conflict? They have gone silent.
I applaud the sentiment of the president's message. I think he was "spot on ". I do however question his new found faith in the theory of "just war". I did a paper in seminary about just war, and used what I had learned to justify our invasion of Iraq. Just war says that if the outcome of war is to end a greater evil, then the evil of war itself is justified. If war is fought to end human suffering, and help improve the lives of all. then war is just. I believed that when we invaded Iraq and I believe it now.
For all intents and purposes George Bush could have given this speech. I fear that what we have heard may not be true conviction, like it was with George Bush, but rather cynical demagoguery!
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