William F. Buckley on Moral Equivalence

Beginning with the 1964 presidential campaign, I became a big fan, so to speak, of William F. Buckley and his political views.  Years later, on the Johnny Carson show of all places, Bill Buckley gave a succinct refutation of the moral equivalence stance taken by so many on the American left, and in general by apologists for the former Soviet Union:

To say that the CIA and the KGB engage in similar practices is the equivalent of saying that the man who pushes an old lady into the path of a hurtling bus is not to be distinguished from the man who pushes an old lady out of the path of a hurtling bus: on the grounds that, after all, in both cases someone is pushing old ladies around.

The statement, of course, is still relevant today.  To see how, just substitute, for the phrase “the CIA and the KGB”, something like “Israel and Al-Qaida”, or “American and Iran”, or numerous other pairings that are often bandied about in the liberal media and on the internet.

Gotta love Buckley.  I miss the guy.