Thursday, February 24, 2005
"Neocon circle jerk"
This blog once again finds itself in a very esteemed company. According to Antiwar, the following stand accused of "one big neocon circle jerk" (is that like a webring?):
If you are still wondering how quoting somebody translates into support and endorsement of that person and his past history and past statements, well, you're not alone.
Jumblatt is not what you would consider "a nice person." Had Matthew Barganier at Antiwar bothered to read the rest of my post he would have discovered that in the very next line I quote WaPo's David Ignatius who says "over the years, I've often heard [Jumblatt] denouncing the United States and Israel," and then proceed to recall Jumblatt's long history of bloody conflict with Lebanon's pro-Western Maronite Christians, and mention that Jumblatt is currently trying to cozy up to Hizbollah. My "new neocon pinup"? Methinks the (anti)war fever is getting better of Antiwar.
Antiwar also points us in the direction of a post by Justin Raimondo who argues that we can't take anything that Jumblatt say seriously because he's got some zany ideas (CIA created bin Laden and al Qaeda, the true axis of evil is "oil and Jews", etc.). Curiously, Jumblatt sounds like a bit more extreme version of Antiwar. Yep, a serious credibility problem here.
Yet, I think it's precisely because of his past positions that Jumblatt is worth quoting. As he himself admits before giving the US his backhand compliment, "It's strange for me to say it..." Because even if our enemies are starting to give America its due, then we might be on the threshold of some really interesting times.
|
"Instapundit (of course)Our crime? We all linked to this quote from a Lebanese opposition leader Walid Jumblatt:
"Jim Geraghty (National Review)
"Arthur 'Great News From Iraq!' Chrenkoff
"Vodkapundit (where Glenn Reynolds gets half his content)
"PowerLineBlog (where Reynolds gets the other half)
"Charles Paul Freund (Reason)"
"It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq... I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world... The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it."By virtue of that one link, we all apparently now made Jumblatt into a "new neocon pinup" and "consider him an authority."
If you are still wondering how quoting somebody translates into support and endorsement of that person and his past history and past statements, well, you're not alone.
Jumblatt is not what you would consider "a nice person." Had Matthew Barganier at Antiwar bothered to read the rest of my post he would have discovered that in the very next line I quote WaPo's David Ignatius who says "over the years, I've often heard [Jumblatt] denouncing the United States and Israel," and then proceed to recall Jumblatt's long history of bloody conflict with Lebanon's pro-Western Maronite Christians, and mention that Jumblatt is currently trying to cozy up to Hizbollah. My "new neocon pinup"? Methinks the (anti)war fever is getting better of Antiwar.
Antiwar also points us in the direction of a post by Justin Raimondo who argues that we can't take anything that Jumblatt say seriously because he's got some zany ideas (CIA created bin Laden and al Qaeda, the true axis of evil is "oil and Jews", etc.). Curiously, Jumblatt sounds like a bit more extreme version of Antiwar. Yep, a serious credibility problem here.
Yet, I think it's precisely because of his past positions that Jumblatt is worth quoting. As he himself admits before giving the US his backhand compliment, "It's strange for me to say it..." Because even if our enemies are starting to give America its due, then we might be on the threshold of some really interesting times.
|
