Profiles in Courage...Not Including U.S. Politicians

Morgan Tsvangirai is a courageous man. He had his head cracked open by his police jailers in Zimbabwe simply for standing up to a dictator. Robert Mugabe has ruled that country for decades without much opposition:

President Robert Mugabe on Friday ordered police to be deployed "fully armed" to deal forcefully with unrest in Harare, the capital. He also threatened to expel Western diplomats who showed support for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

The world has refused to show courage and try and force out Mugabe from power. This has led to a opposition, many of whom are brutalized:

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu strongly rebuked African leaders for their failure to rein in or even condemn Mugabe.

"We Africans should hang our heads in shame," he said on Saturday of the lukewarm response from African leaders. "How can what is happening in Zimbabwe elicit hardly a word of concern, let alone condemnation from us leaders of Africa?"

Valerie Plame, who along with her husband, Joe Wilson, showed courage by standing up to our own tyrant, in the White House:

"It was a terrible irony that administration officials were the ones who destroyed my cover," Wilson told the panel. "Furthermore, testimony in the criminal trial of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, who has now been convicted of serious crimes, indicates that my exposure arose from purely political motives."

This sounds a lot like the scandal involving the Attorney General Gonzales, who motives in removing all the lawyers is believed to be politically motivated, despite his protestations to the contrary. What is ironic is that his boss, Bush, is accusing Congressional opponents of his handling of the Iraq War of being politically motivated:

President Bush on Saturday accused Democrats who are moving anti-war legislation through Congress of using troops as leverage to win domestic political battles, while the Democrats touted their plan to get troops out of Iraq.

This only shows that it takes courage to oppose a war that this president cynically started under the guise of fighting terrorism:

Thousands of anti-war demonstrators and supporters of the U.S. policy in Iraq shouted at each other Saturday from opposite sides of a street bordering the National Mall as protesters formed a march to the Pentagon to denounce a war entering its fifth year.

And the protests weren't just in America. It included Spain, whom were victims of terror due to their involvement in the Iraq war:

Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar joined tens of thousands of people in a march through the Spanish capital Saturday to protest the continuing war in Iraq and to demand the closure of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

It takes courage to stand up against the tidal wave of illegal immigration when you are not getting support from the federal government and you are being attacked by an army of ACLU lawyers:

Last year, Hazleton became a focus of national attention last year when Mr Barletta bought in the new regulations to deal with illegal immigrants.

Mr Barletta introduced the regulations after blaming illegal immigrants for a rise in crime and saying they were destroying the quality of life in his town.

What is not courageous is refusing to answer a question that affects those most loyal to your candidacy:

Asked on ABC News today if she agreed with General Pace's view that homosexuality was immoral, Mrs. Clinton said: "Well I'm going to leave that to others to conclude." She added, "I'm very proud of the gays and lesbians I know who perform work that is essential to our country, who want to serve their country and I want make sure they can."

She also backs down of the Iraq war issue:

Not content with playing to the wedge issues crowd, the NY Times is also reporting that Hillary is backpedaling significantly from her earlier statements that if George Bush didn't withdraw the troops by 2009, if elected, she would do so.

And where is Bush on the whole gays in the military controversy. Why is his top general speaking out and he not:

Gen. Peter Pace took his boot out of his mouth long enough to refuse to apologize for, and instead to reiterate, his anti-gay statements in today’s Chicago Tribune. The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman allowed that he should have just signaled his support for the government’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy instead of focusing on his “personal moral views” but didn’t retract his claim that homosexuality is “immoral.”

And it certainly isn't courageous to get involved in a car crash and then blame it on drug dependency. You then use the sympathy gained to get yourself re-elected to office, when you should've resigned. But if you are a Kennedy you get away with that sort of thing:

Rep. Patrick Kennedy said yesterday he sought treatment for an addiction to the painkiller OxyContin months before wrecking his car outside the U.S. Capitol last year.

The Rhode Island Democrat told NBC's "Today" show that he felt great in his recovery from substance abuse and was determined not to let the disease "take its toll on me ever again."

Kennedy checked into the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota last May after the car crash, saying at the time that he had also been at the clinic the previous Christmas. He said only that he was addicted to "pain medication" and did not name OxyContin.

Politicians could follow the courageous example of a 6-year-old:

A 28-year-old mother was arrested after her 6-year-old daughter tipped police off to her drug dealing ways.

The girl was interviewed by police Friday after her father reported she had been hit in the face with a curling iron while visiting her mother earlier in the week, Milwaukee Police Capt. Darlene Jenkins said.

Jenkins said the girl was wise to her mother's cocaine dealing, telling them she chops up a white substance, puts it in bags and takes them and the girl to alleys. There, people gave the mother money for the bags, police said the girl recounted.