"For a country and a people who are no strangers to hardship and suffering, this tragedy seems especially cruel and incomprehensible," (Video below 00:56)
Incomprehensible I completely agree with but what does he mean by cruel? This earthquake was caused by the ever shifting plates beneath us which have been a natural phenomena since the beginning of the world and is no more unnatural than the breeze blowing or the tides shifting. "Cruelty" presupposes emotion and motive which are human emotions. Humans cannot create earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados or blizzards. So did Obama misspeak or was he really speaking from his ideological belief system presupposing that some”one”, not some”thing” was the indirect cause of this. Moreover, how can a tragedy be especially cruel? A tragedy involving loss of life is no more tragic as the body count multiplies. To not do everything you can to help in this tragedy, that’s cruel! To use this tragedy to advance one’s political agenda, that’s especially cruel. We can all help by donating to the Red Cross and other relief agencies especially in light of today’s news of further aftershocks.
Obama said at the White House following a National Security Council meeting.
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