The Pendragon's Hall

I have never understood how the liberal mind works. Cindy Sheehan continues to dominate the news because of the "absolute moral authority" (Maureen Dowd's words, not mine) of a mother who lost a son in Iraq. Columnist Ann Coulter correctly points out that this would mean Mrs. Sheehan's moral authority might be trumped by a woman who lost two sons in Iraq. I wonder: how about five? At the height of the Civil War, President Lincoln wrote to a mother who had lost all five of her sons in the Union Army. If this lady had set up her tent outside the Lincoln's home in Springfield and started protesting the war in the south, I wonder what liberals might have said? Lincoln never downplayed the woman's sacrifice, but he obviously didn't think her moral authority was absolute. He tended to focus more on the sacrifice of the young men themselves, which is what the press seems to be forgetting here. As far as I can tell, Cindy Sheehan is still alive, and as horrible as the grief of losing a son must be, especially I guess for a war you don't believe in, I still prefer to believe the greatest sacrifice was made by her son, not by her. After all, she has a spot in the national limelight and all the big media giants sticking up for her. What a sacrifice. We've come a long way from the cry of the old general in Macbeth: "Why, then, God's soldier be he! Had I as many sons as I have hairs, I could not wish them to a fairer death, and so his knell is knolled."

And what is the newfound disgust for terrorism in the mainstream press? A Jewish gunman attacked Palestinian civilians yesterday in protest of Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip. Ariel Sharon and other members of the Israeli government understandably deplore what happened and are calling it by its name, "Jewish terrorism." But the press has gone suddenly silent. They reported it as "Jewish terrorism." No commentary on how we have to understand that the Israelis are being forced out of their homes; no comparison to the Cherokees and the Trail of Tears or the minutemen or anything. Well, duh. The guy was Israeli. No excuse for Israelis, just Iraqis and Iranians and people who hate the US. The act was certainly reprehensible and certainly falls under the heading of terrorism, but the real tragedy of this incident was that it undermined Israel's indisputably "absolute" moral authority.