As promised, the Yorkieversion of Deconstructing Jimmah has been posted--a sample:

[...] As a Christian and as a president who was severely provoked by international crises, I became thoroughly familiar with the principles of a just war, and it is clear that a substantially unilateral attack on Iraq does not meet these standards.

The arrogance of this statement is breathtaking. There are hundreds of men and women in this country alone whose sole focus in life is to discuss and study the principles of a just war, and it is far from clear to them whether this situation meets the standard. The Ethics and Public Policy Center, whose sole raison d'etre is to study the nexus between faith and politics/policy (read more here), held a forum in February to discuss the just war issue. The transcript is not yet available (I am told it will be by the end of the week), but you can read the summary of the event here, which demonstrates that there are lots of serious thinkers in the just war camp who cannot agree. (Read George Wiegel's interview about the moral justification of pre-emptive action under the just war theory here. This is also an excellent non-partisan discussion of the history of just war theory and its application.) [...]

Hey, maybe I'm wrong, but I think Jimmah might have a less than altruistic motivation in his recent pronouncements of mealy-mouthed dudgeon. I don't seem to recall that Righteous Jimmah had similar words for Br'er Willie when he unleashed the Arsenal of Democracy against po' ol' Slob Milosevic and the good people of Yugoslavia (after all, you know, there was no evidence Yugoslavia was a threat to us, it had not provoked us, we had not exhausted all peaceful means, we did it in despite world opposition, the population of Yugoslavia was even more defenseless than Iraq's, it was disproportionately violent...on and on), nor do I seem to recall any words of shock and horror when same Br'er Willie zipped up his pants long enough to order the bombing of Mustache Man's hangout way back there in 1999. And what of Bill's and Maddie's sternly worded warnings and constant calls for a regime change in Iraq?

What say, Jimmah--was it a memory lapse? Dementia? Or are you just living up to the old appellation of "yellow dog Democrat". If the latter, I must ask that at the very least you apologize to dogs everywhere.

From "national malaise" to malarkey, Jim, you seem to have the bases covered.

By the way, tell Fidel I said hey.
posted by Terry at 3:22:00 PM