One of the more peculiar op-eds I have ever seen was published by the Wall Street Journal on Friday. The writer, Andrew Klavan, actually goes into print saying that George Bush is our Batman, our Dark Knight, the man who has done what had to be done, knowing that the price is to be despised by the public. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121694247343482821.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
To quote:
"There seems to me no question that the Batman film The Dark Knight, currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war. Like W, Batman is vilified and despised for confronting terrorists in the only terms they understand."
Did he see the same film as the rest of us? The one in which Batman's actions are completely manipulated by the Joker until the very end? The one where Batman kills his girlfriend and tortures his enemies -- which events as mentioned before -- are entirely planned by the forces of evil. It is only at the end when Batman realizes what he has been made to do by The Joker that he finds a way out. But by then it is too late, he is a criminal and he must run. To extend Mr Klavan's analogy (since we haven't actually caught our Joker yet) would be to admit that the last seven years has been Bin Laden's plan all along, a plan that seems to have succeeded only too well: to enrich and empower Saudi Arabia while crippling and humiliating a country that should be the light of reason and law throughout the world -- The United States. I agree with Mr Klavan that bad things sometimes do have to be done by good people for the greater good of us all, but as Machiavelli wrote, to be virtuous is important, but to appear virtuous is even more important. To attempt to justify this administration's failings by claiming that authorizing torture and lying not only to this country's allies but to its own citizens as well took moral courage is one of the most bizarre leaps of logic I have ever encountered.