Is Moral Authority Authority At All?

Not when it comes from man, in my book.

Andrew McCarthy comes to a similar conclusion:

I spent a number of years in the eye of the counterterror storm: prosecuting jihadists, putting my family through the attendant anxieties, and watching the criminal-justice system writhe through what the Clinton administration called its "war" on terror — a curious battle plan in which the enemy kills you and is then presumed innocent. I came away thinking the whole prosecution paradigm was a national-security debacle.

Now, do I get to end all discussion? Do I have the "moral authority" to render that judgment simply because I was there and you weren't? I suppose...except there were other people there, too. They were doing the same thing I was doing, experiencing the same personal and professional tensions. And they will tell you that prosecuting terrorists in the full flower of due process was America's finest hour — and one we should return to, posthaste.

So whose moral authority do you believe? In the end, no one's. What matters is not the personal character of the speaker. This is not to say his unique perspective is unworthy of our respectful attention. Of course it is. But it can't, of its own force, carry the day. Gravitas notwithstanding, what matters is whether the speaker's arguments are compelling. Whether they make logical sense and match up factually with what we know empirically.

This dichotomy of character and substance burdens any effort to address coercive interrogation tactics in the teeth of opposition by Senator John McCain, a great patriot and an authentic American hero.

Coercive interrogation, in our current climate, simply cannot be separated from the imagery and agitprop of torture. Senator McCain is our searing national conscience on that matter, having been subjected to years of sadistic abuse as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. When he speaks about torture, it is not just with MoDo-fied claptrap like "moral authority." McCain is the guy Aristotle had in mind. Singularly, in this debate, he brims over with bravery, insight, and awe-inspiring personal character.

But he's still wrong.

John McCain is by all lights a war hero. That did not save him from gross errors in judgment, whether in his personal life or in his political career (remember The Keating Five?).

John Murtha spent 33 years serving his country as a U.S. Marine. That did not stop him from stabbing his brothers-in-arms in the back by calling for their immediate withdrawal from Iraq while serving his House Minority leadership.

Aristotle thought illness was the result of elemental imbalances, not germs and viruses.

Plato thought the fascist state ideal.

Neither rectitude nor rationality guarantee wisdom. We mortals are vainglorious creatures, and ought to be plagued with doubt whenever we seem most certain.