Our Secretary of State is feeling the heat over in Europe, where many a garment is being rent over our use of “secret” places of detention. I certainly agree that we must avoid violating the very principles we stand for in order to defend them, but there is a moral calculus involved that is not as simple as our disingenuous “allies” would have us think they think. Charles Krauthammer makes a cogent analysis of the question here.
The supercilious attitude of our Continental chums, who would undoubtedly be complaining, if not in German, then in Russian, were it not for previous American foreign-policy positions, is also examined in an editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal. A brief excerpt:
One of Europe’s moral conceits is to fret constantly about the looming outbreak of fascism in America, even though it is on the Continent itself where the dictators seem to pop up every couple of decades. Then Europe dials 9-11, and Washington dutifully rides to the rescue. The last time was just a few years ago, as U.S. firepower stopped Slobodan Milosevic, who had bedeviled Europe for years.
Recommended reading.