Tuesday, December 14, 2004
The leftie smear job to end all smear jobs
The left-wing side of the blogosphere reaches the new low - and keeps digging, courtesy of Martini Republic (is it like a leftie Vodka Pundit?) accusing Iraq the Model of being a part of an American government intelligence and disinformation operation:
No, I'm not making these things up - it's all there, generously sprinkled for good effect with bold font so that readers won't miss all the really good points.
And as if that wasn't enough, the ever dependable Juan Cole jumps on the "bash the uppity Iraqis" bandwagon:
I'm not going to comment too much on the specific absurdities, insults and all the Grassy Knoll stuff - Tony at Across the Bay, as well as Ali at Iraq the Model have already ably responded to Cole and the Martinis - except to say this: how open-minded and tolerant of the left, isn't it? Doesn't it remind you of the treatment that conservative African-Americans get from the enlightened liberal elites? All African-Americans must be liberals, therefore those who aren't are not "real Blacks" but traitors to their race, sell-outs, Uncle Toms and whitey-wannabes (for the latest discussion of liberal racism see James Taranto).
And now we have the same template applied on the Arabs: all Arabs are anti-American, and strongly opposed to our imperialism and the reckless invasion and occupation of Iraq. Therefore, those Arabs who aren't are not "real Arabs" - God forbid anyone in the Middle East would actually want a Western style democracy and some freedom! (it's a common perception among the Western lefties, something I have observed in the context of my own experiences: they loathe their own society so much that they can't understand how other people around the world might actually like it). Worse still, those "unreal Arabs" must also be a part of a sinister disinformation psy-ops campaign by the US government and intelligence services - somebody is paying them to spread their ugly pro-American propaganda!
I'm having deja vu - sections of the left were saying exactly the same things about Poland's "Solidarity" throughout the 1980s. Solidarity was getting money from the CIA! It was all a part of a covert effort to destabilize the Soviet Bloc! In reality, Solidarity received more help from the American and Western European trade unions than from the CIA. And no, a movement of some 10 million members - more than one in four of Poles - was not a creation or a creature of the US government. Yes, Virginia, there are genuine popular movements out there in the world and no, they're not all left-wing.
But hang on - I'm having another deja vu - aren't some on the left saying the same thing now about the Ukrainian opposition? These crazy Slavs can't possibly want freedom, democracy, and a pro-Western government - and surely they're too disorganized to run their own opposition movement - so it must be actually run by some sinister Western intelligence agencies.
I'm sorry if this post seems so chaotic (told you so about these Slavs), but as you can see I feel very passionate about this topic and there is nothing I loathe more in politics than the arrogant, sheltered, ignorant Western left which for most part never "got" the struggle against communism, and is now not getting it either about the struggle for freedom and democracy in the Middle East.
I can laugh about it, too, because a few weeks ago, a certain H.D. Schmidt from Loma Linda, California, had this to say about one of my "Good news from Iraq" segments at the "Opinion Journal":
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"Maybe you've wondered: What kind of operations does the U.S. Government conduct in the line of pumping 'favorable' propaganda regarding Iraq?Yes, Iraq the Model is one of these, and the brave anti-intelligence operatives at Martini Republic want some questions answered; for example, what sort of shadowy role is the government playing in supporting the Iraq the Model brothers' current US tour? Is it just a coincidence that their Internet Service Provider is a company near Abilene, Texas, which happens to be the home base of the 490th Army Civil Reserve Unit? And just how much money is the US government paying them?
"And, more importantly, since this is such an unpopular War: Would the runaway Republican Government dare conduct below-board ops and psy-ops not just in Iraq, but right here in the U.S?
"In the blogosphere, the practice of 'blog trolling' - touting the 'right' messengers with a mix of above-board, official recognition and below-board, ideology-based, sustained pump-priming, to generate a following for propagandistic messengers far beyond their natural level of interest- and to perchance achieve key mainstream media placement without normal media vetting - can 'celebritize' a messenger or messengers, and help to turn bloggers into propagandists."
No, I'm not making these things up - it's all there, generously sprinkled for good effect with bold font so that readers won't miss all the really good points.
And as if that wasn't enough, the ever dependable Juan Cole jumps on the "bash the uppity Iraqis" bandwagon:
"Contrast all this [favorable treatment that Iraq the Model is getting] to the young woman computer systems analyst in Baghdad, Riverbend, who is in her views closer to the Iraqi opinion polls, especially with regard to Sunni Arabs, but who is not being feted in Washington, DC."A mystery, I say! Why on earth isn't the right feting an anti-American blogger? But the US is a free country (Cole and the Martinis might disagree) - MoveOn can sponsor a tour by Riverbend and she, too, could be feted in Washington, DC, by Juan Cole, Michael Moore and the sleuths at Martini Republic.
I'm not going to comment too much on the specific absurdities, insults and all the Grassy Knoll stuff - Tony at Across the Bay, as well as Ali at Iraq the Model have already ably responded to Cole and the Martinis - except to say this: how open-minded and tolerant of the left, isn't it? Doesn't it remind you of the treatment that conservative African-Americans get from the enlightened liberal elites? All African-Americans must be liberals, therefore those who aren't are not "real Blacks" but traitors to their race, sell-outs, Uncle Toms and whitey-wannabes (for the latest discussion of liberal racism see James Taranto).
And now we have the same template applied on the Arabs: all Arabs are anti-American, and strongly opposed to our imperialism and the reckless invasion and occupation of Iraq. Therefore, those Arabs who aren't are not "real Arabs" - God forbid anyone in the Middle East would actually want a Western style democracy and some freedom! (it's a common perception among the Western lefties, something I have observed in the context of my own experiences: they loathe their own society so much that they can't understand how other people around the world might actually like it). Worse still, those "unreal Arabs" must also be a part of a sinister disinformation psy-ops campaign by the US government and intelligence services - somebody is paying them to spread their ugly pro-American propaganda!
I'm having deja vu - sections of the left were saying exactly the same things about Poland's "Solidarity" throughout the 1980s. Solidarity was getting money from the CIA! It was all a part of a covert effort to destabilize the Soviet Bloc! In reality, Solidarity received more help from the American and Western European trade unions than from the CIA. And no, a movement of some 10 million members - more than one in four of Poles - was not a creation or a creature of the US government. Yes, Virginia, there are genuine popular movements out there in the world and no, they're not all left-wing.
But hang on - I'm having another deja vu - aren't some on the left saying the same thing now about the Ukrainian opposition? These crazy Slavs can't possibly want freedom, democracy, and a pro-Western government - and surely they're too disorganized to run their own opposition movement - so it must be actually run by some sinister Western intelligence agencies.
I'm sorry if this post seems so chaotic (told you so about these Slavs), but as you can see I feel very passionate about this topic and there is nothing I loathe more in politics than the arrogant, sheltered, ignorant Western left which for most part never "got" the struggle against communism, and is now not getting it either about the struggle for freedom and democracy in the Middle East.
I can laugh about it, too, because a few weeks ago, a certain H.D. Schmidt from Loma Linda, California, had this to say about one of my "Good news from Iraq" segments at the "Opinion Journal":
"I personally find it a little suspicious that it takes an Australian to tell the truth about Iraq to the American people. I wonder whether this man is not really an American, part of the great effort by the U.S.A. PR to make things look good in Iraq?"All I can say is - I wish. If any of you, dear readers, hear of any jobs going at the White House, the Congress, the Pentagon, or any other part of "the U.S.A. PR" machine, please let me know; I'm willing to relocate!
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