In another fine moment at Eunomia, Larison sums up exactly my thoughts those long years ago as I was derided as unpatriotic for not supporting the Iraq war. (I have since been derided as a Bush-loving fascist for not wanting to withdraw immediately, so I suppose all good things come to those who wait!)
This adoption, or rather perversion, of the language of morality by supporters of aggressive policies abroad lends them an initial advantage in framing the debate and setting the terms. I cannot count the number of times that advocates for invading Iraq derided opponents for supposedly being unable to distinguish between good and evil or even for not recognizing the validity of such categories. On the contrary, I think opponents of the war were paying more attention to the line between the two, but what we objected to even more was the ready identification of a bad policy as an expression of Goodness and the idea that opposition to it was somehow morally corrupt.
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