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Self-interest sometimes gets a bad name. An example is the guy on the sinking Titanic who dressed in female clothing so he could gain access to a lifeboat. A more recent example is the Church pedophile scandal.
No matter what the Vatican PR machine cranks out, sexual abuse of children and its subsequent cover-up is not a conspiracy to smear the Church by the New York Times. Blaming the messenger is a time-honored method of deflecting criticism by all kinds. Unfortunately, now you can add the Vatican to that list. Written policy recently discovered that at least from 1962 on the Church placed its own self-interest ahead of the victims and their parents.
There is no defense for not turning pedophile priests over to authorities. It is even more incredible many of these pedophiles were transferred to other parishes where they could prey (no pun intended) again on new victims. Both the child abuse and its cover-up by church officials is not just morally bankrupt, it’s criminal.
There are echoes of Watergate in the current scandal. To paraphrase a question from the Watergate hearings, what did the Pope know and when did he know it? While it is true that the Church has doled out big fees to settle victims’ claims, it did so only after the cover-up was revealed. The Vatican’s response this past week has been to resort to legalese in defending itself; bishops are not employees of the Vatican; the Pope cannot be sued. Legalese will not stop the questions or the erosion of trust in the Vatican and its ability to handle such future problems.
There is no doubt President Obama acted in his own self-interest this past week in his surprise decision to allow limited off-shore drilling. This follows the president’s equally surprising decision in favor of building new nuclear power plants. These decisions are an obvious attempt to both gain Republican support and provide cover for “Blue Dog” Democrats up for reelection.
While trolling for Republican votes would seem the equivalent of panning for gold in the lake at Roosevelt Park, there is an indication Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is ready to cooperate on a climate change bill. The hunch here is that once Graham climbs aboard, he will provide cover for other Republican votes in both the House and Senate. Saying “no” does have its limits.
Obama is forcing Republicans to either cooperate or get pushed farther to the extreme right and risk becoming irrelevant on another major issue. As we all know, Republicans already made themselves irrelevant on health-care reform.
True, the president’s decisions on limited drilling and nuclear power have riled his party’s liberal base. If you are going to convince the public you are serious about climate change legislation, you have to incorporate limited drilling and some additional use of nuclear power into a plan that includes conservation and the development of new energy sources.
If the president is able to get a reasonable bill on climate change passed on the heels of the new health-care reform (and assuming the economy continues to improve), he and the Democrats will control the White House for the next six years. Getting climate change passed is admittedly in the president’s own self-interest, but it also is in the self-interest of America in the 21st century.
Israel is our friend, but its self-interest does not always mirror that of the United States. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has determined that history is on his side by dictating new settlements in the West Bank. Mr. Netanyahu has to decide whether it is in his country’s long-term interest to continue these settlements (which he refuses to call settlements) if at the same time he destroys any chance of peace in the Middle East.
Announcing these settlements when America is trying to prevent a fragile peace process from collapsing once again, calls into question his commitment to peace. Mr. Netanyahu is playing to those who don’t want peace in the Middle East. If he continues to embarrass our own attempts to broker a peace between Israel and the Palestinians, then we should walk away. The short-term political self-interest of Mr. Netanyahu does not serve Israel’s long-term interests.
Another ally is playing us for a fool. Afghan President Hamid Karzai was elected by fraud, continues to be in power through corruption and treats the loss of American blood and treasure with total disrespect. Mr. Karzai wallows in his own self-interest, which is not our self-interest. Obama is in danger of making the same mistake as Lyndon Johnson did in Vietnam by supporting a corrupt dictator who has no chance to gain support for a viable Afghan state. The president’s recent visit to Afghanistan to persuade Karzai to rid his tenure of the stain of corruption was a failure. After he returned, Karzai was shooting his mouth off again accusing both the United Nations and the United States of trying to take over his country.
Our self-interest is to cut our losses and get the hell out of there as fast we can. Not one more American should die to prop up Karzai.
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