"Does evil exist? And if it does, do we ignore it? Do we negotiate with it? Do we contain it? Do we defeat it?"
OBAMA: Evil does exist. I mean, I think we see evil all the time. We see evil in Darfur. We see evil, sadly, on the streets of our cities. We see evil in parents who viciously abuse their children. I think it has to be confronted. It has to be confronted squarely, and one of the things that I strongly believe is that, now, we are not going to, as individuals, be able to erase evil from the world. That is God's task, but we can be soldiers in that process, and we can confront it when we see it.
Now, the one thing that I think is very important is for to us have some humility in how we approach the issue of confronting evil, because a lot of evil's been perpetrated based on the claim that we were trying to confront evil. In the name of good, and I think, you know, one thing that's very important is having some humility in recognizing that just because we think that our intentions are good, doesn't always mean that we're going to be doing good.
MCCAIN: Defeat it. A couple of points. One, if I'm president of the United States, my friends, if I have to follow him to the gates of hell, I will get bin Laden and bring him to justice. I will do that. And I know how to do that. I will get that done. No one, no one should be allowed to take thousands of American -- innocent American lives.
Of course, evil must be defeated. My friends, we are facing the transcended challenge of the 21st century -- radical Islamic extremism.
Not long ago in Baghdad, Al Qaida took two young women who were mentally disabled, and put suicide vests on them, sent them into a marketplace and, by remote control, detonated those suicide vests. If that isn't evil, you have to tell me what is. And we're going to defeat this evil. And the central battleground according to David Petraeus and Osama bin Laden is the battle, is Baghdad, Mosul, Basra and Iraq and we are winning and succeeding and our troops will come home with honor and with victory and not in defeat. And that's what's happening.
And we have -- and we face this threat throughout the world. It's not just in Iraq. It's not just in Afghanistan. Our intelligence people tell us Al Qaida continues to try to establish cells here in the United States of America. My friends, we must face this challenge. We can face this challenge. And we must totally defeat it, and we're in a long struggle. But when I'm around, the young men and women who are serving this nation in uniform, I have no doubt, none.
For some reason, I see so much in these answers I could dive in and spend 30 minutes (okay, I did spend 30 minutes discussing this with a patient friend). But I'll try to make the main 2 points quickly.
First, Obama cares as much about domestic evil as genocidal evil. When asked about evil, this country's children and the streets of our cities are as close to his mind (and heart) as the "usual" and politically safe paradigm of genocide or terrorism.
Second, and I think this is far more important, Obama recognizes his own (our own) depravity and when all political "sense" is saying "never equivocate on a question like this!" Obama is willing to say the hard thing yet again. I cannot overstate the importance of this quality to me.
In contrast, McCain exhibits callous disregard of the fact that evil will accompany HIM in his battle against evil. On a certain gut level there's a part of me that says, "Yeah, get 'em!" when McCain immediately launches a war in response to evil. But that quickly fades into the gut-wrenching reality that an American captain is going to be put into the situation of knowingly killing a woman and child to try to protect his men.
Kearney could see a woman and child in the house. "We saw people moving weapons around," Kearney told me. "I tried everything. I fired mortars to the back side to get the kids to run out the front. I shot to the left, to the right. The Apache got shot at and left... Finally, we shot a javelin and a tow. I ended up killing that woman and that kid."
Our cheer "follow him to the gates of hell, John!" should get stuck in our throats as we realize OUR desire for revenge and belief in the rightness of our cause has just sentenced 3 young American soldiers to a situation where they will eventually execute in cold blood four Iraqi prisoners with pistol shots to the head as the prisoners stood handcuffed and blindfolded beside a Baghdad canal.
Yes: us, we, the good guys. These were good people fighting for a good cause whose lives are ruined, yet John McCain is getting people pumped up for revenge without a thought of humility. Beware the righteous warrior. I find Obama's answer so much more seasoned, wise and (dare I say) more in line with how Jesus would answer.
