Pacifism in a box

L'Hote's Freddie deBoer is a self-declared, unapologetic, uncompromising pacifist. On yesterday's killing of Al Qaeda figure Anwar Al-Awlaki he writes: "For a society of law, the killing of Al-Awlaki should be even more disturbing than the killing of Troy Davis. Davis at least enjoyed some kind of due process, although it was the flawed, biased due process of a hideously racist system and one that is massively bent towards maintaining guilt and punishment. Al-Awlaki, an American citizen, was given no trial, no representation, no appeal, no opportunity to defend himself legally at all. None. He was declared a terrorist by the government, again with no due process, and assassinated. ... The character of someone killed is utterly and permanently irrelevant to the moral status of that killing. It is as wrong to kill Hitler as it was wrong to kill his victims. ... Please, tell all the keyboard warriors you know, and let them flame on. I really don't give a shit." Well, now. If nothing else, deBoer is no coward. He is commendably sticking to his convictions at the risk of being labeled a terrorist sympathizer (he isn't), and his views warrant respect.

But I wish I could penetrate and comprehend the world deBoer inhabits. To me, it is a purely intellectual or philosophical construct that is beautiful but tragically untethered to human life as it exists. If you or I could magically eliminate all the killing in the world tomorrow (along with the dark sins in which it is rooted), who among us would hesitate to do so? Yes, we have a moral responsibility to condemn violence in all of its ugly forms. And, to paraphrase Aeschylus, it is good that humanity's house is shaken when the gods, or the dreamers, make us reckon with moral guilt. And though it is the sad story of mankind, history has shown over and over again that war begets war and ultimately solves nothing. On the other hand, the idealism of simply turning the other cheek in the face of aggression is plainly suicidal in a world humanity has remade in its own flawed image. It is at this intersection with reality that pacifism, in all of its moral nobility, falls short. It is true, to paraphrase Einstein, that nothing will end the killing unless the people themselves refuse to engage in it. Thus far, we have shown ourselves to be utterly incapable of doing so. I wish deBoer would at least acknowledge that inconvenient truth.

That said, the National Review's Kevin Williamson, playing Aeschylus in modern guise, made an observation that is indeed worth pondering: "The prospect of putting American citizens [like Al-Awlaki] on a government hit list should give us pause as conservatives: not for what this administration might do with such power, but for what an administration 50 years down the road might do with it."