Jeanne at Body and Soul has another masterful post (Missions and killing fields) about the visit she and her 10 year old daughter made to a California mission, which she uses to discuss genocide and mass killing in Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge and our role in El Salvador. She cites' the NYTimes' Nicholas Kristof:
Like Samantha Power, who he goes on to quote, Kristof believes that genocide takes place only when the United States is too spoiled, too lazy, or too preoccupied, to play its proper role as the world's policeman.
Jeanne writes a lot about tourture and genocide in a humane way. That's not a joke - the theme she often returns to is how embedded evil is in humans. We all have the potential for evil in us, and the potential for good. That means that acting in an evil way is a choice, as is acting in a good way.
We harm ourselves, and we certainly harm others, when we claim the moral high ground in fighting evil. Not that fighting evil isn't good or justified, but if we justify henious acts in the name of good, are we accomplishing what we set out to do? The more we sugar-coat our henious acts, and wrap "fighting terrorism" in the cloak of "anything's OK because we're fighting evil," the more we become that which we're fighting.
