Barack Obama Joins the Ranks of the Moral Equivocators

Today, Barack Obama said this about the Georgia/Russian war. (H/T to Little Green Footballs)

Democrat Barack Obama scolded Russia again on Wednesday for invading another country’s sovereign territory while adding a new twist: the United States, he said, should set a better example on that front, too.

The Illinois senator’s opposition to the Iraq war, which his comment clearly referenced, is well known. But this was the first time the Democratic presidential candidate has made a comparison between the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Russia’s recent military activity in Georgia.

“We’ve got to send a clear message to Russia and unify our allies,” Obama told a crowd of supporters in Virginia. “They can’t charge into other countries. Of course it helps if we are leading by example on that point.”

Now, about a week ago, I wrote a response answering critics that made a morally equivalent argument about this war. I just never thought the Presidential candidate for the United States would be one of them.



This absurd argument is found deep in the corners of the far left and other Anti American thinkers. I can only assume that Mr. Obama is referring to our invasion of Iraq, though his words could just as easily apply to Afghanistan. In that case, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. The world rose up together and forced him back. As part of the cessation of that war, he signed an agreement in which he agreed to a series of things that he would have to abide by. He then systematically violated that same agreement no less than seventeen times. The agreement was clear that any violation meant the resumption of war. Furthermore, by invading Iraq and removing Hussein, the United States removed a vicious tyrand and turned that country into a Democracy.



It appears that Obama is making a morally equivalent argument between that and an unannounced sneak attack by Russia into a sovereign Democratic nation that was battling internal forces. Furthermore, unlike the U.S. which turned a tyrant into a Democracy, Russia is systematically pillaging the country of Georgia.



What's more, by that statement, Barack Obama indicates that he believes that Vladimir Putin saw our invasion of Iraq and thought that gave him justification to invade Georgia. If this is his belief, he has a stunning lack of understanding into the way Vladimir Putin thinks. Putin is entirely unconcerned by the rest of the world's action as some sort of moral justification for his action. He is consumed solely by the pursuit of power. He doesn't need moral justification for his actions.



He invaded Georgia because he correctly read the lack of will in the world community to respond to his naked aggression.



Now, these statements should be troubling to everyone except to his opponent, John McCain. To McCain, this had better be viewed as a huge opportunity to exploit and expose a serious foreign policy gaffe. The American people are not going to be very comfortable with a President that draws a moral equivalency between the actions of our nations and the thug, Vladimir Putin. If I am a McCain advisor, I turn this statement into an ad running in every battleground state within 48 hours. If it is possible to turn this into an ad blitz during the Democratic Convention, that is the best campaign strategy this statement could bring to the McCain campaign.