I guess I should have said when it comes to Foreign Policy...

I know, sorry. My sense of humor (such as it is) is like an old toothless shark that must be kept moving constantly, or it will die ...

It's cool, by this point I'm usually being tagged with a bunch of "naughty" labels, so I'll take any apology I can get :D

Reagan revisited

Sir, – Antonio Cazorla-Sanchez sardonically congratulates the TLS (Letters, August 17) for publishing two articles on Ronald Reagan “which did not mention at all the dirty wars in Central America”. He should read more carefully. My own review certainly did refer to Central America: “Until I sat with him and a few others serving on the transition team to discuss the El Salvador war in detail and depth, I too half believed the stories” (about Reagan’s incompetence). But that was certainly not a “dirty” war. It was a very clean war indeed in which I am proud to have played a small part, by helping villagers defend themselves against guerrillas who refused to take part in elections, and instead attempted to impose a Cuban-style Communist dictatorship by force of arms. When they were defeated by the US-trained Salvadorean army and by village militias, they did participate in general elections and were soundly beaten. By then everyone knew that the Sandinistas of Nicaragua were predators and that Cuban Communism was a miserable failure.

EDWARD N. LUTTWAK

4510 Drummond Avenue, Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/tls_letters/article2393418.ece

I don't know about the rest of you, but if the officials in the administration (The Secretary of Defense, no less!)who are supposed to be responsible for our national security and defense secretly think we'd be better off if we were attacked again, Novemeber can't come soon enough. And if the Democrats can't take that audio recording and work it into some sort of campaign ads, they're nuts.

"...no politician dares to express these majoritarian views. Right-wing neocons with clearly fringe views have succeeded in making the mainstream views -- the ones held by most Americans -- off-limits to mainstream political leaders..."

Yes, because the mainstream in this country doesn't write the checks that are the lifeblood of politicians. Pick your issue and you'll find, more often than not, that the views and wishes of the so-called mainstream, in spite of the implications of the word, are being marginalized by fringe voices, driven by ideology and/or greed, and amplified by money.

Excuse me, this is news??

bot had better check his own couplings.

Huhuh. You said "couplings".

Wasn't someone frothing in here (or linking to said froth) the other day about the Sodomist conspiracy? How W had sold out to it for ... well, whatever one gets in return.

Re Nuttswack ... it's funny how these things happen, isn't it, all that theorizing about power inevitably seems to lead to wanting access to some of it.

There's this academic disease when it comes to relevance. Write critically (and often well), tenure, move to elite university, then govt or think tank job. Then they come back to the academy full of themselves and suddenly not so critical (my small-n observation anyway).

It's cool, by this point I'm usually being tagged with a bunch of "naughty" labels, so I'll take any apology I can get :D

-- Chris Sinnard

You have made several good posts today. So, lay a good label on yourself, no charge --- I'll pick up the tab. :-)

I think my nausea may have just now passed ... maybe ...

Let me know when you're good to go and I'll toss another one out there. It's the only way I have of gauging the effectiveness of my propaganda. ;-}

I think my nausea may have just now passed ... maybe ...

Let me know when you're good to go and I'll toss another one out there. It's the only way I have of gauging the effectiveness of my propaganda. ;-}

Jesus girl, stop that. You ladies have to keep the place civilized, everyone knows that.

(my problem is I missed the post with the joke in it) :-(

I've never in my life heard a bigot say "I am a bigot". Salon is like that. It's not unique either.

Jesus, you're stupid.

I suppose in your world I'm now an anti-semite for pointing out that you're stupid because you happen to be Jewish (I'm assuming).

It was on the other thread, but I won't resurrect it. I don't want to upset quickstrategy's constitution any more than necessary. He's feeling 'delicate' at the moment.

So with that in mind, is the subject of American "support" for Israel based on anything other than theology? It's certainly not based on realpolitik.

Realpolitik, at least as it was practiced during the Cold War, was part of the calculus. Israel was a wild card in the region, but it kept nominal Soviet proxies focused and under control. Admittedly the Johnson Administration shot its leverage with the Arab states playing around with aid packages and debt financing, and the 1967 war certainly didn't help. The 1973 war, plus the oil embargoes of 1973 and 1979 showed how limited either side's influence on their clients were but neither dared just pull up stakes.

National guilt was also part of it, but only insofar as it bolstered the Israel-is-the-best-proxy calculus.

Theology is just a cheap excuse for a segment of the population - the ones who likely got weaned on Hal Lindsey, Pat Robertson, and other such Rapture/Armageddon fabulists as kids - to go along with this madness as it fits into their religious preconceptions.

At least that's how I've seen it. Take it for what its worth.

I was doing okay, and ready for your next Hurl Check, until I read that letter from Luttwak to the TLS that LWM just posted.

Now I'm going to have to go lie down.

Is Frum from Australia? Yesterday I watched seven baby goslings. I'm glad they were no Tasmania devils.

Next the hideous creeps who write about geese will ask Obama if he always shoots golf with duckpin bowling balls?

On the first day of Hell,

these quacks will moan-complain.

They will groan there is no bed room TV. So sad.

They will cry because there is no 'Scott' TP tissue.