"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Friday, December 7, 2012

Pearl Harbor and Moral Clarity






























America had moral clarity in the years after Pearl Harbor.   We had been attacked, and our enemy needed to be defeated.   We did not seek understanding, or "peace with honor," or a "timetable for withdrawal," or a "winding down."   We did not think in terms of moral equivalence.   We sought unconditional surrender of our enemy, and would not settle for anything less.

I miss that kind of clarity.   How about you?





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