Obama and Wright: Beyond the Pale

Barak Obama yesterday described the "view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam" as "profoundly distorted".

Yet that "profoundly distorted" view is precisely the view of United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, John Dugard, as I noted here earlier this month. And as I've noted elsewhere, the view that Islamist terrorism is either exascerbated or caused by Western foreign policy is simply the consensus view of security agencies and experts across the board.

It says something rather frightening about how far to the right US political culture has gone, that views held by people as straightforwardly mainstream and liberal as John Dugard (not only a UN Special Rapporteur, but also a professor of international law who has served as a judge on the International Court of Justice) must be denounced and consigned to the fringes of debate, even by the most progressive Presidential candidate the US has produced in some time. But its a sad fact that, in relation to much of the rest of the world, American political debate simply occurs on another planet altogether.

I'd still prefer Obama to win the nomination, and the Presidency. But I have to say its very much a case of beggers can't be choosers. Perhaps a victory for him will bring us a little closer to the day where simple truths are not decried as obscenities in US political culture. But this latest from him, whether he really believes it or not, is very far from encouraging.