Moral equivalence watch:

We read Tom Friedman's execrable column today and were struck by these words he wrote:

I believe the French president, Jacques Chirac, knows something in his heart: in the run-up to the Iraq war, George Bush and Tony Blair stretched the truth about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction — but they were not alone. Mr. Chirac also stretched the truth about his willingness to join a U.N.-led coalition against Iraq if Saddam was given more time and still didn't comply with U.N. weapons inspections. I don't believe Mr. Chirac ever intended to go to war against Saddam, under any circumstances. So history will record that all three of these leaders were probably stretching the truth — but with one big difference: George Bush and Tony Blair were stretching the truth in order to risk their own political careers to get rid of a really terrible dictator. And Jacques Chirac was stretching the truth to advance his own political career by protecting a really terrible dictator.

Tom, there's a big difference between stretching the truth in order to take a country to war, and stretching the truth in other matters.

To make the point clear, let's do a rewrite of Frideman's words:

I believe the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, knows something in his heart: in the run-up to the World War II, Hitler stretched the truth about Poland's aggression against Germany - but he was not alone. Mr. Chamberlain also stretched the truth about the Munich accord bringing "peace in our time". I don't believe Mr. Chamberlain ever intended to press Poland for concessions, under any circumstances. So history will record that both of these leaders were probably stretching the truth - but with one big difference: Hitler was stretching the truth in order to risk his own political career to bring a new order to Europe. And Neville Chamberlain was stretching the truth to advance his own political career by protecting the authoritarian and stubborn Polish leadership.

posted by Quiddity at 12/18/2003 04:06:00 AM