Pat Robertson's Unhelpful Call for Assassination

Here's an interesting question: To an objective non-American looking at the situation from an outside vantage point, is there really much of a difference between a terrorist leader going on television and issuing a fatwa against American political leaders, and Pat Robertson going on television and essentially issuing a fatwa against democratically-elected leaders in other countries?

It's an interesting question - and one that bodes poorly for America's image throughout the world. Here we are in Iraq, supposedly fighting against the fatwa-issuing terrorists and for democracy in Iraq (though that was never the reason for the war), and one of America's top conservative leaders issues a fatwa against a democratically elected leader in a neighboring country to the south.

This isn't to say that Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is a great guy - but he was twice democratically elected in elections that were verified to be legitimate. Additionally, America currently relies heavily on Venezuela for oil.

So, really, no matter how bad you think Hugo Chavez is, it's pretty fair to say that Pat Robertson's latest bout of wild-eyed extremism (and it is just one of many) is extraordinarily unhelpful almost any way you look at it.

COMMENTS: Go to Sirota's Working Assets site to comment on this entry