Letters to the Editor
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Insta-Update : a guide for the perplexed
Quite lengthy guidance, too, by insta-standards, but perhaps some perplexed insta-fans were asking pesky insta-questions. The insta-professor gets testy.
Professor Reynolds :
http://instapundit.com/archives2/003965.php
UPDATE: Reader Ted Clayton emails: "Perhaps you could specify who "they" refers to. "As you can see [if you weren't such wankers] from reading [you morons are as lazy and stupid as my students] the linked item, it refers to those allegedly-progressive Westerners who refuse to hold non-Westerners to the same moral standards applied to, say, America and Britain. That should be obvious [Lord, sometimes I wonder why I even bother educating the rabble] to, well, anyone who's paying attention.
- - Glenn Reynolds
And one final coda by the master :
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Drew Kelley writes: 'I am shocked, shocked, to find prejudice among our "best and brightest'." The descent of the "progressives" into racist double-standards is an old story, but it's still one that bears pointing out now and then.
- - Glenn Reynolds -
Oh about that nasty little adventure in Iraq
Lets explore a few myths:
1. If we were to accept the Dems benchmarks it would be tantomount to surrender.
Response: Oh really? Will we be signing surrender papers on the battleship ISS Hussein? Do you really think the Sunnis, Shias and Kurds met at Potsdam and planned some long occupation for us? Give them time and your current strategy and it could happen.
2. If we withdrew the Iraqis would follow us here.
Response: Oh yeah? So they'll jump on their magic carpets to American and kill us all? you are obviously insane.
3. If we withdrew it would be a surrender to their subjugating ust to converting to Islam and praying to Mecca.
Response: Ok, you are insane and religious, too. The funny part would be if this delusional scenario were realized you, the ultimate enemy of the ACLU would join forces with them to protect your children from being forced to praying to Allah in our public schools. Yeah, just when you thought it couldn't get any worse you would be a card carrying member of the ACLU.
4. If we were to pull out Al Quaida would just set up terrorist training camps in Iraq.
Response: Have you not been paying attention these last four years? I can't imagine a better terrorist training ground than the anarchy we created in Iraq. If anything, leaving would likely lead the Iraqi people to kick out a few other meddling foreigners if you get my drift. But then that would require the application of logic.
Want to know how us liberals could have a better answer to your maniacially crazy problems? We leave, now. Better yet, we leave yesterday. And quickly at that.
Of course history is replete with people like neocons frustrating those who actually know what is going on from making smart decisions. No good neocon would abandon Stalingrad. Midway was the naval battle to end all naval battles. Tet would drive Americans out of South Vietnam. All foolish extremist ideas came to naught. That should be a message for all to learn.
Unless you're insane and fear 25 million Iraqis swimming to America to convert us to Islam. Keep doing what we are doing and they migh actually think that is a good idea, just to force us to leave them the hell alone.
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The formula
All of this ranting about 'Untermenschen' and the 'failure' of Iraqis to respond to the wonders and the benefits of having their country occupied by American troops is the same old Fascist formula: first collectively dismiss a group as sub-human, then feel free to do anything you like to them. Bomb them back to the stone age, lock them up in prisons for no indictable crime etc. My guess is that right now Michael Ledeen and his ilk are licking their wounds and plotting their revenge; nothing too sophisticated. Their theory of re-shaping the Middle East into a Western-style (meaning American) paradise by means of cruelty and violence has come unstuck, as it was bound to do. The fact is, people don't like being beaten up and having their sons taken away in the middle of the night. They don't like having no electricity, no decent medical care and no human rights. Arab or otherwise,the reaction is the same. In this the Iraqis are all too human not sub-human as the far right would have us believe.
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Paul's response to RWA and The Clinton years
The very essence of politics in the Clinton years was the constant rightwing effort to delegitimate and dis-establish the Clinton presidency. The right wing was largely joined in this effort by the Washington establishment, which viewed the Clintons as hick interlopers.
The GOP's RWA base ate this stuff up. But the majority of Americans did not, as shown by Clinton's continued high job approval numbers, and the consistent majorities opposed to his impeachment.
In short, RWA helps make the Clinton years considerably easier to understand, and the Clinton years help illuminate the broader explanatory role that RWA should have in understanding our politics.
My only quibble is a minor one, and an addition:
"The very essence of politics in the Clinton years was the constant rightwing effort to delegitimate and dis-establish the Clinton presidency [despite the policy and style differences being minor]."
Clinton, aside from being a much better president, a better executive, was as centrist as any Democrat can get. Distortions and mischaracterizations were used to exaggerate differences that were rather minor between Clinton and actual conservative principles. To wit:
"The Mother of All Big Spenders: Bush spends like Carter and panders like Clinton.
by Veronique de Rugy and Tad DeHaven"
This article originally appeared in NRO on July 28, 2003. It can be found at Cato so tell me about it's bias:
http://www.cato.org/research/articles/dehaven-030728.html
eRiposte has a fairly good comparison of Bush vs. Clinton/Gore
http://www.eriposte.com/politics/bush/bush.htm
Clinton was a moderate centrist. Too moderate and too centrist for some people, and far more willing to work with his political enemies than Bush. Bush is the radical extremist. Everyone agrees with that now. Even the moderate conservative right.