Letters to the Editor
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Svensker
Ledeen is probably what Altemeyer calls a "double high" that is a high RWA and also a high Social Dominator. These people are truly dangerous because they combine the ability to compartmentalize their thinking typical of the high RWA with a desire to acquire power typical of a Social Dominator.
For a far more detailed explanation of these types I suggest you read Altemeyers book at the URL below:
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
The book is free to read online in PDF format and is free to distribute however you wish. Dr Bob (as he calls himself) is also available online to answer any questions you might have.
There is also a Google Group for discussion of the concepts Dr Bob has written about at the URL below:
http://groups.google.com/group/theauthoritarians
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Mona
This may help:
http://lgfwatch.blogspot.com/
http://littlegreenfascists.blogspot.com/
But this...
Is the coup de grace
http://www.drmenlo.com/lgfquiz/
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Mass destruction?
So, the chlorine truck bomb killed 27 people. Brutal, shameful, senseless, yes. But mass destruction? Not at all.
The characterization of WMD is part and parcel of the lies the pro-war faction is constantly using. Would chlorine gas be a horrible way to die? Definitely. But calling this attack a WMD is an absolute and utter lie.
The US has many different kinds of weapons that kill far more than 27 people at a time. If this argument is taken to its logical conclusion, the US military has used far more WMDs in Iraq than the "enemy" has. But anyone saying that would be branded a traitor by these same shrill liars.
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Swimming Pools & Kitty Litter
Never mind the fact that chlorine can be obtained from some fairly mundane everyday sources.
I'd like to hear a neocon explanation for why the insurgents are able to obtain such dangerous "WMDs" after four years of US military occupation.
But then, that would mean having to discuss the past four years of Iraqi history, wouldn't it? Oops!
Look over here, folks! Nancy Pelosi's wearing a head scarf in a mosque!
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Shooter242
I'm absorbing what RWA is and why it's bad.
Have you ever tried to argue theology with a fundamentalist Christian?
Or a fundamentalist Muslim for that matter?
How about arguing politics or economics with a dyed in the wool Marxist?
If you have then perhaps you might understand what an authoritarian follower (high RWA) is. (personally I prefer the term "authoritarian follower" to "high RWA" because it doesn't carry the political baggage that high RWA does)
If you are a fundamentalist Christian then you most likely are an authoritarian follower.
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Re: EXTERMINATE!
Exterminationism is the radical form of Eliminationism that Dave Neiwert has been exploring and documenting for some years now.
Exterminationists -- the Daleks of Our Time -- believe that so long as enough of The Enemy are killed (if necessary, unfortunately, that may mean all of them), their own futures are secured.
They are terrified that if even one of The Enemy survives, he (or she) will come after them with chlorine and suicide vests.
Exterminationists, therefore, demand genocide or surrender to The Enemy. Those are the only choices in their mind.
Their King, George Dubya Bush, has so far refused their demands for genocide. Therefore, their King MUST be advocating surrender.
This is a terrible dilemma. They cannot go against their King, and yet if he can not be persuaded to exterminate The Enemy to the last one, surely he cannot remain King.
The Dalek circuits are shorting out.
As for chlorine: the sanctions imposed on Iraq prevented the importation of chlorine, on the premise that it could be used for weapons systems. The effect of the ban, of course, was to disable such water purification plants as there were in Iraq, leading to a significant increase in water-borne disease, which, little surprise, led to a much higher mortality rate. The conquest lifted restrictions on chlorine importation, but because of all the damage from sactions and the conquest itself, and the extended sabotage by the insurgency, the chlorine cannot be used as intended -- for water purification -- and so, behold, the Iraqi Devils use it for improvised weapons systems.
Circular as hell.
Pandora's Box isn't the half of it.
(One of many links available regarding the embargo on chlorine. This one is very early in the sanctions regime.)
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/UScahIraq.html
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A Rare Disagreement
Glenn, while I think you're generally right on this issue, in this particular instance I think you're totally misinterpreting the point Ledeen is making. His argument is not that the people in that region are "untermenschen," but that the reason many people are silent about terrorist atrocities is that THEY - not he - believe that "what else can you expect?" In other words, he is accusing people on the Left of "the racism of low expectations," to coin a phrase. There's more than enough material out there to justify hauling off Ledeen to a looney bin, but in this case his argument is not what you say it is.
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Not Daleks, Not Cylons Either...
Exterminationists -- the Daleks of Our Time -- believe that so long as enough of The Enemy are killed (if necessary, unfortunately, that may mean all of them), their own futures are secured.
I disagree.
The most appropriate analogy would be to Vogons--"the worst marksmen in the Galaxy".
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"Don't greet the terrorists (apparently
all Sunni men between the ages of 15-35) with silence, you racists, greet them with bombs. Obliterate them. It's the fair and impartial thing to do."
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czapniks: Read Glenn just a bit more carefully
He actually makes this distinction, though it's really subtle. See, the Ledeen quote starts off with the right wing robot meme that it's all these liberals and leftists who are prejudiced against certain benighted peoples (because they won't blow them up like Ledeen wants).
Then, since Ledeen suggested that some political 'faction' seems to think that these certain 3rd world inhabitants are inferior, Glenn goes ahead and quotes a political faction which explicitly states that these certain 3rd world inhabitants are inferior.
Except, as Glenn points out, though Ledeen's silly slur is indeed analogous to a 'low expectations' argument, in reality, it's the right wing which repeatedly and explicitly argues that these certain 3rd world inhabitants are inferior and deserve death.
So I think Glenn is very aware of what you're saying, and that's the basis of the essay's irony: i.e., Ledeen makes the usual silly right wing suggestion that because liberals and leftists don't rush to advocate blowing some country up, it means they're racists or hierarchalists or something.
Yet the right wingers quoted below Ledeen very explicitly describe those countries' residents as inferior and as targets for genocide.
So, the argument on the right is that because liberals & leftists oppose blowing certain 3rd world peoples up, they're racists, but when right wingers explicitly call for genocide etc. against certain 3rd world peoples, this is somehow not racist & discriminatory.