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PDF versionNiebuhr Lives In Oslo
by Michael Sean Winters on Dec. 10, 2009
President Obama’s speech this morning in Oslo was truly remarkable. A monsignor called shortly after the President finished his remarks and said it was the best speech from a politician he had ever heard. I suspect the monsignor’s judgment was biased because the speech was, above all else, theological. And the theology was all Reinhold Niebuhr.
In fact, you could say that the key difference between George W. Bush and Barack Obama is that Bush’s worldview lacked any intellectual underpinnings, it was all gut, while Obama has grounded his worldview in the thought of one of the most penetrating minds of the last century. Niebuhr, more than any other theologian, provided the intellectual justification for the policy of containment that characterized American foreign policy for forty years, achieving its twin goals of avoiding World War III while containing the Soviet Union’s expansionist policies so that the internal rot of that hideous regime would not have a longer shelf life through the conquest of new imperial lands. Containment was the most successful foreign policy in the annals of our national history.
Containment was also a foreign policy that was embraced by Democrats and Republicans alike. During the 1952 campaign, there was idle talk of “rolling back communism” but it came to naught. The fact was that the policy fit the moral requirement of the twin menace we faced in the post-World War II era: It recognized the evil of our geo-political opponent and the evil of any kind of force that might “defeat” that regime. It saw military force as an instrument of politics, not the other way round. (Only Dick Cheney still seems to see military force as an end in itself.) And, most importantly, containment rested on the belief that over time, communism would collapse because of its own internal flaws, that our system of free government and free enterprise was morally superior to theirs.
Obama has wedded himself to these kinds of calculations about the necessity and the limits of military might. He understands that peace is more than the absence of war. He understands, too, that there are worse things than war and cited the intervention in the Balkans as an example of how it can become immoral not to use military force. The President’s decision to send more troops to Afghanistan, as well as all his future decisions about foreign policy, can now be seen publicly through the prism he obviously employed in reaching his decision. It is a fine prism and it should lead to fine decisions. Let’s hope that the Republicans will recall with pride the history of one of their own, Sen. Arthur Vandenburg, who embraced containment despite the fact that its suggestion first came from a Democratic administration.
"Containment was the most
"Containment was the most successful foreign policy in the annals of our national history."
Oh really? As I recall, North Vietnam overtook South Vietnam to the tune of American 58,236 lives. How is that successful foreign policy?
I recall before one of them
I recall before one of them had died that Vietnam as a whole voted for Ho Ci Minh, and so we invaded with our military "advisors."
It took decades for those election results to find full implementation, and millions of Vietnamese lives, and tons of Agent Orange and profitable napalm surging Wall Street under Nixon, who then made previously "Red" China, Vietnam's enemy, our ally and now our owner, with the help of Papa Bush.
Well, if you knew anything
Well, if you knew anything about the history of Vietnam starting with WWII, you would know that the agreements and WWII goals were not achieved in Southeast Asia. The Vietnamese nationalists supported and fought along side Allied Forces against the Japanese. In return, the US, UK allowed France to reassert itself as a colonial empire in Vietnam breaking all kinds of agreements.
In 1954 when the French left after the Dienbienphu defeat, Eisenhower stepped in and violated the UN Charter and vote allowing the Vietnamese to determine their own future and government. That would have been following the US strategy of "containment." Instead, the US began a gradual involvement and escalation of the Vietnam conflict resulting in the division of the country with US supporting the South and China/Russia supporting the North.
Kennedy (to some extent) but definitely LBJ changed the containment policy to active intervention, excalation, and bombings impacting 4 nations - South/North Korea, Laos, and Cambodia. This shifted the US role from passive containment to active engagement based on the now discredited "domino theory."
The sad story of US Vietnam mistakes is told by McNamara, Bernard Fall, and any number of former Kennedy/LBJ advisors.
Dear President Obama, As you
Dear President Obama,
As you received the Nobel Peace Prize last night, you stated, "A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al-Qaida's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism — it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.”
I would like to invite you consider the following: that force is sometimes necessary is a call to cynicism - and I would add greed and malice. Humanity’s imperfections are a result of our choices to give into greed, malice, and despair; furthermore, war is a FAILURE to recognize history. Denmark was able to resist the Nazi regime through non-violent non-cooperation. Hitler was able to come to power through the terrible pain that was wrought on the German people after World War I - and the unjust treaty. And there were plenty of opportunities to prevent Hitler’s rise to power and his plan to annihilate people who were Jewish, Catholic, gay, disabled, etc... And let me add here (since it seems to be the center of much of the conflict between some in the Muslim world and the USofA) that the formation of Israel and the displacement of the Palestinian Christians and Muslims is filled with history (and her-story) that needs to be told. Our failure to read and discern that history has had terrible consequences. Let us also remember that the Holocaust happened in Christian Europe.
Mr President, your failure to “change” the status quo of our foreign policy that keeps the Defense Industry wealthy is a failure of your campaign promise of “change” and a failure to recognize the heroic actions of your heroes, such as, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr who stated that “wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows,” and Nelson Mandela who came to power in a nonviolent regime change.
I will leave with you this quote from President Dwight Eisenhower: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”
What part of "Thou shalt not
What part of "Thou shalt not kill" does Michael not understand?
What part of "Love thy enemy; do good to those who harm you?"
The only moral stance is peace, and sharing with your enemy.
At least for those who follow Jesus.
Those who profit from war find differently (and no personal risk for the moment of course).
The USA remains by far the world's biggest arms exporter and war profiteer.
The US economy was been based on war since Pearl Harbor.
Turn Christian.
Work for Peace.
Believe no more the lies of war.
Feed no more on its profits.
Fuel no more its killing.
Love thy enemy.
We have been extorted and lied to far too long.
BEcome a moral man in the immoral society.
Stand for Peace.
Love thy enemy.
Luke 3:14 (New International Version)
14Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?" He replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely—be content with your pay."
Jesus did not say, sure, why not, keep on killing children, women and civilians whom you falsely accuse as terrorists for the profits of your imperial bosses.
This speech was garbage and war mongering.
Work for Peace.
Follow Jesus.
Love thy enemy.
and get very busy with implementing Matthew 25.
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