tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5328993133397649838.post2422556893981926601..comments2023-10-25T09:45:40.318-04:00Comments on The Politics of the Cross Resurrected: N. T. Wright: No Winston ChurchillCraig Carterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209954891388905090noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5328993133397649838.post-39818604564847557372011-05-11T18:51:45.887-04:002011-05-11T18:51:45.887-04:00Sirnickdon,
If Wright were not anti-USA, he could ...Sirnickdon,<br />If Wright were not anti-USA, he could have taken a totally different tack in response to this story, one that I think is much more sensible given the facts we know. <br /><br />He could have been outraged that Pakistan flouted international law so flagrantly in allowing elements in the army or intelligence service or whomever to shelter the world's most wanted mass-murderer around the corner from the Pakistani equivalent of West Point 35 miles from the nation's capital for 6 years. He could have been outraged that the US had to go in and get bin Laden themselves. Why didn't the Pakistanis arrest him? Why is no one complaining about them? Why is Pakistani exceptionalism not the issue? If the world's most wanted mass-murderer is being sheltered by a nuclear armed country, then why was nothing done until the US sent in the special forces? Why is this not the scandal? <br /><br />Why is it only an issue when the US appears to flout international law? And if international law is the answer, why was bin Laden not arrested? Why didn't it work? If the UN is so wonderful and so committed to justice, why didn't it do something? Why was bin Laden left to literally get away with murder? <br /><br />When people are not asking these kinds of questions, but instead training their rhetorical guns on the US instead, I suspect bias.Craig Carterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10209954891388905090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5328993133397649838.post-27646689968343988292011-05-11T16:56:27.250-04:002011-05-11T16:56:27.250-04:00My understanding is that N.T. Wright isn't obj...My understanding is that N.T. Wright isn't objecting to the killing of Bin Laden, but to the violation of Pakistan's national sovereignty, by conducting a military raid within their borders without their consent or foreknowledge. (At least that's Pakistan's official version of the story.) <br /><br />His U.K./IRA/Boston analogy is off, though. If bin Laden had been located in the U.K., we would not have sent in a spec ops team to dispatch him, but would have worked with British military forces, or at least gotten a go-ahead from their military command. This is, in any event, what Wright feels we ought to have done with Pakistan. That we did not demonstrates that we feel we are not beholden to Pakistani or international law (American exceptionalism) and that sometimes you just have to break rules to get the job done (Obama's vigilantism). <br /><br />All that said, I don't see anything that implies that Wright "despises America" (To be honest I'm not sure what that would mean.) In any case, I love America while simultaneously critiquing the notion of American exceptionalism, so I know it can be done.NDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17035272209447764709noreply@blogger.com