Vanity thy name is politics

For three-quarters of my life I’ve worked in and around egos – from theatre and movies to entrepreneurs.  My own roles (professionally and volunteer) inevitably are rooted in my own sense of self-worth as with the work itself.  It’s true for all of us.  One doesn’t need to be a Freudian scholar to realize the role that ego plays in our lives.  There is a particular manifestation of the ego in politicians, however, that sets their vanity on a whole different plain.
This week Vanity Fair released its November edition with an exclusive article claiming that President Obama considered putting Osama bin Laden on trial if he had been taken alive.  The sources?  Top national-security officials and the President himself.  This claim is a whopper and proves that the id, ego and super-ego are on full display in the 2012 Presidential campaign.
On May 1, 2011 Navy SEALS raided a compound in Pakistan and killed Osama bin Laden.  The President has been unapologetic about the action, in fact has touted the action as proof of his foreign policy expertise.  The White House then leaked that President Obama maintains a kill list.  CIA Director Leon Panette stated on PBS NewsHour: "The authority here was to kill bin Laden.”
 
"No Easy Day" was released a few weeks ago and was written by a SEAL who was part of the mission.  The book details that bin Laden didn’t represent any threat, was unarmed and was just killed.  It was an assassination pure and simple.
The action is one of the most popular things Obama has done – with 93% of the country supporting the killing.  I have been a vocal part of the 7%, criticizing the President’s actions as being inconsistent with American ideals and a tradition of law.  The voices of dissent have been small and infrequent.  Until this article in Vanity Fair at least President Obama was unapologetic about his philosophy and his action, however inconsistent I might think it is with the Rule of Law.  The October surprise is that integrity is now gone.
If President Obama wanted to take bin Laden alive he could have.  The Navy SEALS are a highly skilled and highly trained cadre of professionals.  All reports concur that bin Laden was unarmed.  This sudden suggestion – in total contradiction to numerous statements by the White House, the Defense Department and the soldiers themselves – can only be the work of a politician wanting it all ways.  He wants to get credit for thinking of putting bin Laden on trial while reaping the benefits of exerting military muscle in murdering the man.  The sniping, lying and name calling of Campaign 2012 was bad enough.  Now political vanity rears its ugly head and the result is more cynicism, which I didn’t think was possible.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hoping for Grace

I wrote this blog regularly for many years, 330 unique posts. Every Thursday I’d post my thinking for the week. I always strove to offer a perspective that wasn’t in the main discourse on a particular issue. It wasn’t left or right or even center – just looking at something from a different angle. There were some really great dialogues that happened with people who appreciated nuance and having a substantive conversation. I never sought for agreement from readers, just a healthy and respectful debate. The election of Donald J. Trump changed the engagement from polite discourse to flame throwing character assination if somebody disagreed. That wasn’t interesting or productive to me, so the blog no longer served its intended purpose. I return to the format because today because it seems to be a good way to explore an issue that I’ve been long committed to, but handled in a thoughtless way. Recently I made a thoughtless comment on a Facebook post that was undeniably racist, and demean
Read more

Give me a break!

The idiom “give me a break” generally is used when you don’t believe something that has happened or been said. We’ve all muttered the expression a lot lately, especially around the 2016 Presidential race. I am going to use it here more literally. I started this blog in late July 2010. This is the 329 th iteration. At an average of 750 words that’s nearly 250,000 words. To compare that’s about three average mystery novels (at 80,000 words each), much less than the Bible (800,000 words) and nowhere near the IRS Code (4 million words). Originally Craig’s Corner was a way to keep me focused during a long stint where I was without work or income. With gainful employment it has become a welcome respite from the day-to-day tasks. I tend to focus on issues that are interesting to me but not necessarily a critical part of what I do day in and day out. My perspective isn’t unique, but I do look at the word with a different lens. I’ve tried hard not to be part of the echo chamber and been
Read more

Giving the gift

Image
The holidays are right around the corner. It’s a time of reflection, excitement and no matter one’s religious predilections a there’s a tradition of gift giving. Talking about the holidays before Halloween is usually met with revulsion and resistance. This time it’s different. While we can’t grant everybody’s #1 wish – that the 2016 U.S. Presidential election cycle be over – maybe we can do something close.   Let’s give Donald J. Trump what he’s been talking about. I’m wary of adding to the proliferation of commentary on the Grand Old Party’s nominee. But then maybe there’s something to the Trump complaints. Instead of dismissing everything that comes out of his mouth as made up, perhaps we should be doing is more of what he worries about, not less. The more recent complaints from the real-estate tycoon have to do with media bias. All “the media” does is lie, distort and never gives him fair coverage. This same media generated over a billion dollars of free brand and nam
Read more