Friday 25 July 2008

OBAMA WAS "RIGHT" ON THE WAR?

What is otherwise a reasonable editorial in USA Today is marred by the absence of intellectual honesty around the notion that Obama was "right" on the war.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/07/our-view-on-ira.html

"Our view on Iraq: Why can't Obama admit the obvious? The surge worked.
Obama was right about war, wrong about surge; McCain vice versa."

I feel like I’m in a bad “twilight zone” episode every time I hear how Barack Obama was “right on the war.” The implication of this statement is that he was privy to intelligence information on Iraq, and after careful deliberation, decided “on the evidence” to oppose the invasion. None of this is the case. Obama had absolutely no information on which to base his opposition. He was a lowly Illinois State Senator. He opposed it only because it was also the equally uninformed opinion of the majority of his liberal constituency in the Illinois 13th legislative district.

Yes, Obama was “right”, but anyone with a shred of intellectual honesty would concede that he was right in the same way as you could be “right” with a flip of a coin. Since I have not heard anyone in the mainstream media make this concession, I must conclude that intellectual honesty has been trumped by their torrid love affair with Obama.