General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Presidents should be questioned and confronted, not idolized [View all]ProSense
(116,464 posts)"Sure, some are less hideous than others, but all of them possess the peculiar quality of being able to order people to be murdered, even entire cities and/or nations bombarded, before shuffling off to bed. As commander-in-chief, they wield the power of life and death...there's something a bit off-kilter about these individuals (recall that even "saintly" Jimmy Carter wasn't above throwing a bit of money to a right-wing Latin American outfit, or stirring up trouble in Afghanistan). On occasion, we might get a Lincoln or FDR, but even those titans had to be pushed into doing the right thing."
...silly strawmen lectures, and not well-thoughtout. It seems you're against this strawman practice because Presidents have the power to "order people to be murdered." You criticize the "'saintly' Jimmy Carter," but then say, "On occasion, we might get a Lincoln or FDR..."
"Titans"? Isn't that term idolatry? I mean, does being "pushed into doing the right thing" negate the fact that these "titans" also "order people to be murdered"?
All Presidents have a hand in war, indirectly or directly. That's the price of being the leader of this country. The one thing citizens can hope for is that they exercize good judgment.
There are those who still haven't forgiven Clinton for the Rwanda genocide. (And I should ask would these critics want a President to intervene in a similar situation today?)