Month: May 2004

The “Blame Liberals First” crowd

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(to paraphrase Fox News…read on.)

Part of me wishes that the Abu Ghraib story had never come out, or at least not the pictures that accompanied it. “Hearts and minds” arguments are usually full of conjecture and self serving assumptions, but this one is easy. These pictures are going to make more people hate us. They’re going to drive recruiting for Al Qaeda, and certainly the Iraqi militias. Americans will almost certainly get killed because of these photographs—maybe only in Iraq; maybe also here.

But I also know that’s not a brave or responsible reaction on my part. The problem is what happened, not that we found about it, or that the Arab world found about it or that CBS released pictures of it. The pictures might well be necessary to prevent it from happening it again. And journalists’ responsibility is to the truth, not to the U.S.’s image. If only censorship and self-censorship stand between us and what Islamic extremists say about us—well, God help us.

John Podhoretz and Glenn Reynolds seem to disagree with me. Podhoretz:

For others, however, thoughts of the Vietnam War conjure up a sense of moral triumph. They opposed the war, and their opposition was a key element in this nation’s withdrawal from the battlefield over the course of the Nixon presidency.

Those were glory days for the anti-war movement and the American counterculture, both of which reveled in their hostility to and rejection of authority… Keep this fact in mind when considering the actions of CBS News and The New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh.

Hersh and CBS are leading the media pack with graphic and lurid coverage of the disgusting atrocities committed at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. The tone they are adopting is a tone of moral outrage. But beneath it you can feel the thrill, the excitement of being back on the old familiar turf of standing in opposition to the foreign-policy aims of the United States – using the most despicable actions of a few criminals as a stand-in for the overall effort in Iraq.

For Hersh, this is quite literally an effort to return to old glory: He made his career almost 35 years ago by uncovering the Vietnam-era massacre at My Lai.

To take this story, and make it about American-hating hippies and journalists, is so misguided I don’t know where to start.

I once planned to grow up and be an investigative journalist, so I know about Seymour Hersh and My Lai. It is striking that the same person broke the story that shook our faith in our own rectitude in Vietnam, and the story that is doing the same in Iraq. Either a strange coincidence, or a sign of Hersh’s tenacity and the rest of the press’ lack thereof.

But. Is Hersh gleeful? He sure as hell doesn’t sound gleeful when he’s interviewed. Maybe he’s not above the odd surge of triumph, but if there is any element of vindication involved—Hersh is an investigative journalist. Finding out this stuff is his job, and he’s done it very well, and we all like to be best at our jobs. There is no indication whatsoever that Seymour Hersh is cackling with glee to be able to subvert American hegemony once again.

And even if there were….who the hell cares about the tricksy anti-Americanism that motivates Seymour Hersh, if his story is accurate? What, precisely, does Podhoretz think Hersh should have done? Not published the story of Abu Ghraib or My Lai, because it made us look bad? Say that these were six bad apples and did not detract from our noble liberation of Iraq? Hersh could say that, but it wouldn’t make it true and it certainly wouldn’t make anyone in the Muslim world believe it–for the most part they’re not learning about this from the New Yorker.

When U.S. soldiers abuse prisoners, the problem is that U.S. soldiers abuse prisoners, not that reporters write about it. When things go badly in Iraq, the problem is that things are going badly in Iraq, not that some antiwar people might be having impure thoughts about it, or think they were right to oppose this war before it started.*

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Promised II: A gentler, kinder North Korea

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Hat tip to Constant Reader Wilfred for this item Via Instapundit ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ North Korea caves North Korea, probably the world’s most secretive and isolated nation, has offered an olive branch to the US by promising never to sell nuclear materials to terrorists, calling for Washington’s friendship and saying it does not want to suffer the … Read more

Promised: Much Better Puppets

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“You don’t make art when nothing’s wrong.” –Jill Giegerich ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So the arts in New York are being energized by an unexpected source of inspiration: the upcoming Republican National Convention. Could it be that President Bush has made politics cool again for the arts in New York? Nothing in recent memory has stirred the far … Read more

A lesson to be learned.

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That there is no Other. No matter where we start from – or where we end up – we’re all human beings on the same spaceship (to evoke a conceit of Timothy Leary). The same dreams, hopes, fears, emotions, you name it – it’s all the same, from mind to mind (some would say heart; others, soul). And, most importantly, no man or woman really is an island; there are connections everywhere, and you’d be surprised how quickly you can trace the path from person to person, woman to man.

A pity that the man in this case is Micah Wright: frankly, it was demeaning to have this insight in relation to the lying SOB*. On the bright side, I now know that newspaper machines (in [some] AZ [college campuses], at least) typically have combination locks. I have no idea what I could actually (and ethically) do with that information, but at least I know – and knowing is half the battle.

Hey, I wonder if that tagline was how Wright got the idea in the first place…

Moe

UPDATE: Reader jon demonstrates that I apparently didn’t know quite as much as I thought that I did. Like that was a shock, or anything.

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Rall-Free Zone.

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If you’re so POed about the twerp that you need to vent some more, I suggest that you click either click through to Max Sawicky’s site (even though he doesn’t link us, the so-and-so) or Citizen Smash’s (who does link us); they both seem equally annoyed about it. As for their dispute… much as I hate not getting the back of my ideological compatriot*, Indymedia ain’t the antiwar movement, thank God. Generally speaking, they shouldn’t be let within a square mile of the antiwar movement (on tactical grounds alone), but that’s another issue entirely.

Moe

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Gimme some of that funky fundagelical link-action, baby.

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What, you’ve never heard of fundagelical? Or fundagelism? It’s the latest word, oh my droogies: all the cool bloggers are using it. You can’t click a link without seeing all the hipsters attacking or defending the concept: why, it’s bigger than trackbacking! (pause) At least, that’d be the impression that you’d get from this Guardian … Read more

Retraction Monday, Revisited.

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Upon reflection, I’m going to have to say that I was a bit brusque in my earlier comments re Edward’s Fajullah post: expecting the assumption of goodwill from those who disagree with you is a two-way street, after all, and at any rate it would have been more appropriate to quietly handle the matter via … Read more

U.S. Muslim harassment claims up

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has released details of a forthcoming report on claims of harrassment by Muslims in the U.S. in 2003 and they represent a 70% increase over claims in 2002. From CNN: The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it received 1,019 claims of physical and verbal attacks on Muslims; on-the-job discrimination; … Read more

Without endorsing such efforts

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…let me just direct those who may not have discovered it already to David Brock’s new site, Media Matters for America. Welcome to Media Matters for America, a new Web-based, not-for-profit progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media. Because a healthy democracy depends on … Read more

It can also happen in Brooklyn

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One of my initial reactions to the Abu Ghraib story was a vague, irrational feeling that the place itself was evil; that we should have blown it up; that we never should have used it for our own detentions. We probably should blow it up, and follow the rest of John Quiggin’s suggestions. But this … Read more

Retraction Monday

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Having made a right ass of myself on the Fallujah post below, I’m nothing if not sympathetic for the position Paul Bremer found himself in when the media broadcast a criticism of Bush’s efforts in the War on Terror earlier. And, now, it appears that choosing one’s words more carefully is catching on: Bremer Takes … Read more

Subcontracting Torture

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That could be the title for a post about Abu Ghraib. Civilian contractors apparently played a role in the abuses there, according to the Hersh article. But I haven’t had time to learn much about what happened in that place, nor have I wanted to look at the pictures.

No, I’m still talking about our torture subcontracting to countries, not defense companies—and linking to another article about “extraordinary rendition” and the Maher Arar case (sent to me by Gary Farber, who is really on a roll these days.) Ahmad Abou El-Maati, the first of the Canadians tortured in Syria, has spoken publicly about what happened to him:

During my detention and torture by the Syrians I was forced to divulge everyone I knew. This included Mr. Maher Arar,” says Ahmad Abou El-Maati, a Toronto truck driver first arrested in November, 2001, and released from a series of Middle East prisons just a few weeks ago.
Mr. El-Maati says that shortly after his arrest he placated his torturers by falsely confessing to a bomb plot targeting Ottawa, and by falsely implicating others, including Mr. Arar, according to an affidavit he wrote after returning to Canada last month….

He says RCMP or CSIS agents questioned him in the Toronto airport and also put a spy on the plane. Then, “upon my arrival in Syria on November 12, 2001, I was immediately detained.”

During subsequent months in prison, Mr. El-Maati says he was forced to lie down naked as guards dumped ice water on him, burned him with cigarettes and beat him with cables. “I was forced to sign a false confession of false events implicating me in a non-existing plot involving my brother, which I signed and fingerprinted in order to stop the vicious and constant torture,” he says.

He says he also falsely identified an Ottawa man, 33-year-old Abdullah Almalki, as a suspect. Arrested in Syria two years ago and only recently released, Mr. Almalki is also seeking standing at the inquiry.

This is more or less what I’d have guessed he would say, if you’d asked me. It really does look like the Syrian government was interrogating and torturing Canadian citizens at the request of U.S./Canadian intelligence—and in Arar’s case, the U.S. deported a Canadian citizen from JFK airport to Syria on the basis of “evidence” gained under torture. It sounds like something out of the Salem witch trials, but that seems to be what happened.

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Anecdotal Evidence Update.

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My mother called my house this morning to inquire about how one sets up an internet grassroots movement to draft John McCain for the Presidency. This seriously shifts polling results in the crucial Immediate Lane Family demographic, leaving Bush, McCain and Kerry tied for first place (20% each), with 40% of the respondents not yet … Read more

Like polls do any better.

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Professor Bainbridge brings to our attention this LA Times article (registration required, alas, and ‘laexaminer’ doesn’t seem to work) that claims that every single time that the Washington Redskins loses or ties their last game before a Presidential election, the sitting President loses the election as well. This streak has apparently been unbroken for 72 … Read more

How FUBAR is Fallujah?

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UPDATE: Based on the response from fellow bloggers on this site, I’ve rethought a central line in this post. I’ve left it in, willing to own up to my mistakes, but realize that I projected an objection to the line about “good liberals” on the Tacitus site to my thoughts about this issue here. My defense of Liberals (and the corresponding snark about “normal conservative stance”) belong on Tacitus, not here. Having conceded that (and underlined the offending bits for anyone who can forgive and carry on with this topic), let me clarify that this post is asking whether this critique of the Fallujah decision is on target or a bit hyperbolic.

Across the blogosphere conservative folks are fretting about the turn of events in Fallujah. Tacitus, worried that this is another Mogadishu moment, spares no scorn for Bush in his blistering attack. Andrew Sullivan worries that the unthinkable is happening: Bush is losing his resolve. And it’s made The Politburo Diktat question “what are we fighting for?”

And so I have to wonder—feeling that this does not follow the {{normal conservative}} stance that criticizing our leaders during war is unpatriotic—how FUBAR is the Fallujah decision, really?

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A Touch of Humility

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As expected, the Arab reaction to the Abu Ghraib prison photos is chock full of hypocrisy charges. Despite over a year of hard work by thousands of Americans to win the hearts and minds, this one revelation has swept any sense of the moral high ground right off from under us: The editor in chief … Read more

Other Weekend Thread

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Apropos of nothing… Jeebus, but am I getting sick of getting into a car and driving for multiple hours. I think that it’s time that family members started visiting us for a change. (pause) Right. I’m collecting Laws of the Blogosphere. So far I’ve got Gary Farber’s* “Sometimes blogging response is inverse to blogging effort.” … Read more