August 13, 2006
By Harry T. Cook
It was actually possible to read on the same page of a single day’s newspaper these three articles: the first about why the President said he vetoed the stem-cell research bill, the second explaining why he resisted the call for an immediate cease-fire in the Hezbollah-Israeli war, and the third giving latest body count from Iraq.
All on one page, easily taken in between sips of the breakfast coffee.
The first concerned President Bush’s reiteration of his and his party’s “respect for life,” saying, in effect, that it was immoral to consume embryonic life in the cause of saving the lives of people already born. In that position, he is staunchly supported by his evangelical Christian political base, which constituency uncompromisingly holds that all life is “sacred,” but only, it seems, between conception and birth.
In what was almost a footnote, the President explained that his veto would honor the existence of a passionate minority of Americans who do not want their tax dollars used for stem-cell research involving viable embryos.
Why does Mr. Bush fail to honor the well-known, oft-expressed moral objections of millions of Americans to their tax dollars being poured down the rat hole of the doomed Iraq war? Cindy Sheehan respects life so much that she can’t get over the fact that her son’s was sacrificed in it. And clearly, Democratic voters in Connecticut also have had it with the wanton consumption of human life to prove the masculinity of George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld in their ill-fated war – Joe Lieberman’s political career being the collateral damage here.
So life is sacred . . . except when it’s not.
Why did a half-hearted call for the possibility of a cease-fire have to wait until fully a fifth of the population of Lebanon was on the run from the Israeli bombing of its cities and villages? Who knows how many innocent civilians have been killed? The Hezbollah rockets are taking their own toll on Israel. Life is life, and death is death on both sides of the border.
When it counted most and before the sides in the conflict became so intractably dug in, President Bush could not bring himself to demand a cease-fire at least long enough to get UN relief teams into southern Lebanon with much needed food, water and medicines. It was more important to let Israel attempt to pound Hezbollah into submission, thus reducing innocent Lebanese (and Israelis, since the attempt has failed) to pawns in a political chess game played by men in suits sitting around polished tables in tastefully appointed air-conditioned salons, finally sending out a woman to announce the score.
So life is sacred . . . except when it’s not.
The U.S. military death toll in the almost 3 ½ year Iraq war is quickly approaching the 2,600 mark. President Bush keeps saying the way to honor that reprehensible waste of American youth is to “complete the mission,” which is putatively to bring democracy to freedom-starved Iraqis. My understanding of what most Iraqis want is more than two hours of faltering electric power per day and an end to the insurgency which is caused in great part by the continued presence of U.S. troops there. They would very much like it if the rival, roving militias would decide which gang of thugs will actually rule Baghdad and environs after Uncle Sam sooner rather than later leaves for home.
But, no. Mr. Bush has to “complete the mission” and export his demented version of freedom and democracy to a country that can hardly catch its breath, never mind trying to compose its version of the Federalist Papers. It is more important to him to tamp yet more human fodder into the guns of war to make the point that . . . that what? That life is sacred?
If life is sacred, then, yes, veto stem-cell research. But intervene in the Middle East, too, in such a way that Hezbollah and Israel will be forced to stand down and stay down, and bring back U.S. troops from Iraq.
Life is sacred . . . except when it’s not.
© Copyright 2006, Harry T. Cook. All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced without proper credit.
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