But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their [Martin Luther King’s and Gandhi's non-violence] examples alone. I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism -- it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.” – President Obama, Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech
How can one deny that President Obama is a militarist and a mass murderer? Theologian John McKenzie observed that no American President since the nuclear age has been unwilling to push the button. Obama is likewise not unwilling, “sworn to protect and defend [his] nation”, at the risk of thousands more civilian deaths. “The world as it is” at the state level has always called forth a violent solution to violence. “Evil does exist in the world”, and what Martin Luther King Jr. said of the United States of America exactly a year before his assassination still obtains: “[T]he greatest purveyor of violence in the world today [is] my own government.” America is prime candidate for “Evil Empire”.
The “recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason” call forth a transcendence of same towards a new history of the state without violence. It is thinkable and doable, and the only measure of human greatness. There is one implicit truth in the above excerpt: To have a hope of being a bona fide peacemaker, Obama chose the wrong job.
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