Caveat: What is the morality…?

Obushma_6a00d8341c562c53ef017d40ef748d970c-320wiTa-Nehisi Coates, at That Atlanic, waxes passing eloquent as is his wont on the topic of torture vs the drone-war:

… The president is anti-torture — which is to say he thinks the water-boarding of actual confirmed terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was wrong. He thinks it was wrong, no matter the goal — which is to say the president would not countenance the torture of an actual terrorist to foil a plot against the country he's sworn to protect. But the president would countenance the collateral killing of innocent men, women and children by drone in pursuit of an actual terrorist. What is the morality that holds the body of a captured enemy inviolable, but not the body of those who happen to be in the way?

I present the quote above not entirely in full context – there are other things Coates said that I don't agree with as much. But this paragraph struck to the core of my discomfort with the obvious – to me – fundamental bushcheneyism of Obama's national security policies. Since the main reason I supported Obama in 2008 was his repudiation of Bush's post-ninelevenism, my disappointment, at this point, is complete.

Caveat: Crazy Uncle Neighbor

516222-aust-condemns-north-korea-nuclear-testWell, I've lived in South Korea during most of North Korea's nuclear career. They tested another one.

Each time they do one of these tests, I can't help but reflect for a moment how bizarre the whole thing is – South Korea is this prosperous, moderately well-adjusted OECD member nation, but they have this neighbor, you see… a crazy uncle, no less, who throws rocks at passing cars and sits in his yard playing with his gun collection and shooting targets in his kitchen. Further, everyone knows he beats his children and locks them in the basement, and he comes around asking for handouts every few months because he's run out of money.

What do you do with a crazy uncle neighbor like that?

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