Columnist Clarence Page has taken issue with Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) apparent assertion that Libya is not in Africa. During the recent GOP presidential debate, she said:
“[N]ow with the president, he put us in Libya. He is now putting us in Africa.”
She was referring to President Barack Obama’s decision to send U.S. troops to aid in the fight against the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda and neighboring countries.
Speaking in a strictly geographical sense, Libya is in Africa. But, to be fair to Bachmann, when we speak about the location of different countries, we often don’t speak in a strictly geographical sense.
It’s common to say that the world has seven continents, and nobody would say that Germany is in Asia. But there’s no large body of water separating Europe from Asia. Geographically, Europe is a part of Asia (or, more properly, “Eurasia”). We separate Europe from Asia on the basis — not of geography — but things like politics, religion, ethnicity, language and culture.
Likewise, even though Libya is geographically part of Africa, there’s a big difference — again, in terms of politics, religion, ethnicity, language and culture — between the people who live on the northern, Mediterranean coast of Africa and those who live south of the Sahara Desert. As such, we talk about Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, and Libya as being part of the Middle East, because of the prevalence of (among other things) the religion of Islam and the Arabic language. Saying that Libya is in the Middle East, not Africa, is akin to saying that Germany is in Europe, not Asia.
Now, for the sake of comparison, remember that Obama himself said:
“[O]ver the last 15 months we’ve traveled to every corner of this country. I’ve now been in 57 states. I think one left to go. One left to go — Alaska and Hawaii I was not allowed to go to, even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it.”
By my count, Obama’s claiming there are 60 states, when there are actually only 50. Of course, Obama simply misspoke, saying “57” when he intended to say “47”. But Republicans have jumped all over this quote as if it exhibits a failure to understand basic geography.
Likewise, at worst, Bachmann simply misspoke, committing a gaffe no worse than Obama’s. More likely, though, she didn’t commit a gaffe at all, she was simply speaking about the world in terms of cultural and political units, rather than strictly geographical ones.
But, of course, the name of the game in politics is to forgive the gaffes on your own side as mere slips of the tongue, while magnifying the gaffes of your opponents into acts of colossal ignorance.
There are, naturally, ridiculous criticisms of Obama’s foreign policy, such as radio pundit Rush Limbaugh’s claim that Obama is targeting Christians. But you can reject such criticisms without resorting to derisive name-calling, which is what Page does when he refers to Obama’s Libya critics as “munchkins”.
What Bachmann said was perfectly sensible. To be consistent, Page should probably give Obama the same treatment for his “57 states” flub. Though, to be both consistent and fair, he should reject name-calling with respect to both of them.