Democrats, or perhaps I should say liberals, are at a real disadvantage because of their commitment to the principle that individuals should be able to ?do their own thing.? It is an admirable principle, as is the belief that when what an individual does turns out to be wrong, the experience will provide its own corrective.
But, when we extrapolate this attitude, that experience will be the teacher, to actions that have very negative consequences for many people besides the individual who's doing or directing the action, this restraint, this reluctance to interfere and set people straight before they act, can turn out to be quite destructive, however well intentioned.
When the lives of many other people are involved, it's not acceptable to ?let the chips fall where they may.? And that's the reality we Democrats have to confront at this point in time.
While there were some people who objected to the agressive actions undertaken by the current American administration, their objections were obviously not enough. And some voices were muted by just that liberal attitude of letting people ?do their own thing? and ?wait to see what happens.?
If some Democrats, including our contender for the Presidency, still seem reluctant to second-guess or capitalize on 20/20 hindsight and confront the administration with the blunt truth that its aggressive policies were just plain wrong, the rest of us, the ordinary citizens, it seems to me, have an obligation to set the matter right. If the wrong-headedness of the current administration is not properly refuted at the ballot box, we are all going to be guilty of the abominable acts committed in our name.
That John Kerry, who's spent almost thirty years as a Representative, is uncertain about what he would have directed the military establishment to do, given the information he had been provided and given the ambivalence of the American people, should not be surprising. However, now that all the information has come out, there is no excuse for the American people to maintain this ambivalence. Not only the President, but all our elected representatives deserve a clear message from their constituents that murder, whether in the pursuit of empire or oil or any other resource, is not acceptable. Period.