Character Counts

I just finished an article in Sports Illustrated about Big Ben (Roethlisberger), the Pittsburgh Steeler's quarterback, and it's not a very pretty picture. Ben is a legend in his own mind. Allegations of multiple sexual assaults, routinely boorish behavior, and driving around on his motorcycle without sticking a helmet on his big fat $102 million noggin are just a few of the reasons that the Super Bowl superstar has Pittsburgh fans ready to put him out with the trash. But wait, there's more!

How about Tiger, Kobe, or Tim Geithner? Who the Sam Hill is Tim Geithner? Nope, he's not an athlete - just the Secretary of the Treasury and former head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank who "forgot" to report a chunk of income and pay taxes on same. How about the Wall Street trader who was knowingly selling crap investments to a customer and laughing about it to his fellow traders? Then there is Mayor Sam Adams in Portland who hits - and I mean hits - on a teenage boy intern. You can look at any major sector of our society and find similar stories with people famous and not. It's enough to make one want to shout out across the whole country, "Have you no shame?" Sadly, the answer in most cases any more is "No."

Feeling a sense of shame presupposes some sense of morality on the part of the transgressor. When "It's all about me!" is your guiding principle, the only morality is what gratifies you at the moment. Without a sense of morality that comes from outside oneself, however, a conscience if you will, then "unfortunate" incidents like the ones cited above are merely tactical public relations problems. A good PR guy is called and after mouthing some soothing bromides to the public, the bad actors go right back to being bad again, albeit hopefully more discreetly. The problem from a societal standpoint is that individuals who cannot recognize evil in themselves cannot recognize it in others and put not only themselves but others in danger.

In the movie Die Hard a weaselly executive from the company being held hostage wants to get out and tries to negotiate with the terrorist/robbers. He sees no reason a deal can't be cut and gives up the name of John McClane's wife without a second thought. He is rewarded for his efforts with a bullet in the head. You have to know with whom you are dealing. Perhaps he got his just desserts, but he also put McClane's wife at risk. The end result is even worse when a nation is involved.

If you look at Obama's approach to Iran, it is illustrative of the same approach. Obama wants to focus on installing a permanent Democratic majority with him as the new FDR. Iran is a hindrance - a tactical problem to be solved so he can go back to what really interests him. To deal with this tactical issue, the Administration believes if it just makes a deal sweet enough for the Iranians, they will buy in and problem solved. The only hitch is that what the Iranians want to get back to is erasing Israel from the face of the world and installing a new Caliphate to rule the world, or at least the Middle East and parts of Europe. They are willing to die to accomplish this goal. When bad things happen, which they will, those pulling the levers at the top in D.C. will not have a clue what happened because they do not have a clue about immutable principles, as evil as those may be in the case of the Iranians. Everything is relative, everyone has a price. Just like Chamberlain believed when dealing with Hitler and LBJ believed when dealing with the North Vietnamese. Too bad they were wrong. Too bad Obama is too. You have to know with whom you are dealing. You have to have something outside of yourself informing your strategic goals and tactical decisions. Duty, honor, country would be a good place to start.