The effect of that is to poison the flow of information to the President himself and to create a situation where a President can be almost, to use a metaphor, psychotically divorced from the realities in which he is acting.
Daniel EllsbergRead
Obama is making a choice now that will lead to the deaths of many thousands of civilians in Afghanistan by American hands. By ordinary standards of presidents, he is a decent man. But those standards aren't good enough. He's in a position either to kill or not to kill, and he's made the decision to kill.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques President Obama's decision-making in wartime, highlighting the moral weight of his choices.
In this quote, Daniel Ellsberg expresses a deep moral concern regarding President Obama's choices in military actions that could lead to civilian casualties in Afghanistan. While acknowledging Obama's decency by conventional standards, Ellsberg argues that such standards are insufficient for someone in a position of power over life and death, emphasizing the ethical responsibility leaders hold in their decisions regarding war.
Themes
ObamaDecisionCivilian CasualtiesWarEthicsLeadership
In practice
Example use cases
During a political debate on military ethics.
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I felt that as an American citizen, as a responsible citizen, I could no longer cooperate in concealing this information from the American public. I did this clearly at my own jeopardy and I am prepared to answer to all the consequences of this decision.
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EVERY attack now made on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange was made against me and the release of the Pentagon Papers at the time.
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If there's another 9/11 or a major war in the Middle-East involving a U.S. attack on Iran, I have no doubt that there will be, the day after or within days an equivalent of a Reichstag fire decree that will involve massive detentions in this country.
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