Obama and Nuclear Hypocrisy
Oct 2nd, 2007 by Micah Tillman | 2 Comments |
Barack Obama wants what we all want: a world without nuclear weapons. We don’t like being afraid.
Another solution to our fear would be for our government to keep its nukes and make all the other countries get rid of theirs. But that would be hypocritical, many say. At least, that’s what they say about demands by the US that Iran and North Korea scrap their nuclear programs.
But if you look at the issue carefully, I think you’ll find that the US government’s fundamental position is not hypocritical. It’s coercive. There’s nothing hypocritical about saying, “We don’t like you having nukes, so get rid of them.” It only starts to get hypocritical if the government says, “Everyone should get rid of their nukes . . . . You first.”
For some reason (which I don’t comprehend, given what government is) the US government has put itself in the “It would be better if nobody had nukes” position. And this is what leads, I suppose, to the hypocrisy accusations.
But let’s be honest with ourselves. US politicians don’t actually think no one should have nukes so much as they think no one but the US should have nukes. (Except maybe Barack Obama. He just seems like an all-around nice guy.)
And there’s no self-contradiction in that. It’s just a blatant desire for coercive power. And since government by nature is the exercise of coercive power, I’m not sure there’s much room to criticize them from.
Do you think this is an example of doublespeak on Obama’s part? He seems to do this sort of thing a lot!
I’d suspect it of Clinton or Edwards, but I don’t have the same feelings of suspicion toward Obama that I do of the others.
The most I can claim, however, is that I have or don’t have feelings when it comes to a lot of politicians.
Well, I can say I don’t agree with many politicians’ general political theory, but beyond that I’m not sure how informative my views of them actually are. *grin*