Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Austin Bay Blog » Fisking Amnesty, Persevering After Moral Compromise

Austin Bay Blog » UPDATED: Fisking Amnesty, Persevering After Moral Compromise: "Amnesty International is paying a hard price for its PR cheap shot, and it should. (See this Washington Post editorial.) Amnesty’s current leadership inhabits a self-referential echo chamber, and over the next few months will find that there is such a thing as bad publicity, particularly when an organization relies on “moral principles and human rights” An organization with genuine moral principles and genuine respect for human rights must be able to distinguish between scattered crime and focused genocide, between criminal actions at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo (on the one hand) and 9/11, the Taliban, Bali, Saddam, suicide bombers (etc) on the other. Koran flushing? Does anyone remember the Taliban’s destruction of the Buddas of Bubiyan? Does Amnesty? Amnesty has cheapened the language of suffering, and for an organization espousing Amnesty’s principles, this is a grievous error."

The whole post is worthy: an even-handed examination of how people always corrupt even the noblest of causes.

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