| Our Friends in the North
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Wednesday, March 29, 2006 |
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# posted by Sonic : 1:57 PM
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Regular readers will recall a post here criticising Christophers continuing adulation of what he calls "Our Kurdish Comrades"
One of the examples I used was the story of Dr. Kamal Qadir an journalist sentenced to 30 years for "defaming Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani"
Many were the replies I received dissing the story, I was told I was making it up, that he had been released and even that Masoud Barzani had personally intervened to revoke the law.
So, on behalf of this humble blog, let me aplogise. My accusers were correct to assert that Dr Quadir is not serving 30 years, indeed the idea that you get 30 years in jail for disagreeing with the glorious leader of half of Kurdistan is left-wing propaganda of the most vile kind.
It's only one and a half years
I await Christopher's strident call for a demonstration outside the Iraqi embassy in Washington to defend free speech. Meawhile Amnesty International have an appeal here |
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| Now who does the elephant remind me of?
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# posted by Sonic : 7:28 PM
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| Compare and contrast
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# posted by Sonic : 1:44 PM
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Christopher in an interview CNN's Anderson Cooper tonight 22-03-06
"you'll note the slight tone of hysteria and the nervousness, I think, in the over-assertive way that your man was just talking now." (refering to a journalist arguing the war was not going well)
Christopher in Slate 20-03-06
"I shall go on keeping score about this until the last phony pacifist has been strangled with the entrails of the last suicide-murderer."
hmmm. |
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| Dennis Perrin
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Wednesday, March 22, 2006 |
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# posted by Sonic : 1:05 PM
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Dennis Perrin, an ex-friend of Hitchens, gives his take on Christopher's latest outburst in Slate
Killer Lies
Well worth a read. |
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| Kurdled
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# posted by Sonic : 2:02 PM
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"We are still in the black. This was a just and necessary war...We've made some friends, good ones, like the Kurds, who are freedom fighters and democrats"
So how are things up in Northern Iraq where Christopher's chums are in charge?
'Northern Iraq Ruled by Force and Fear'
Some excerpts
"Access to education, jobs and career advancement is often determined by party affiliation and there is no independent media in the region, Time wrote.
The weekly news magazine handled the problems in northern Iraq in the story titled "Trouble in Kurdistan." The frustration at this "dual monopoly" appear to have been behind a violent outburst last week at Halabja, the town on which Saddam Hussein inflicted a barbaric chemical attack in 1988, killing 5,000 people.
Time defended Kurdistan is a veritable police state, where the Asayeesh, the military security, has a house in each neighborhood, and where the Parastin "secret police" monitor phone conversations and keep tabs on who attends Friday prayers.
Secret Police? say it aint so!
"Though religious marginal groups are treated with tolerance, these two parties use the Foundations Ministry to keep Muslims under strict control, Time noted. Although outlawed in 2003 by the Iraqi constitution, the Ministry, established by the British in the 1920s to control Muslims and later utilized by Baath officials, is still regarded as a source of pressure on the Kurdistan region, Time underlined. "We have hundreds of Saddams in Kurdistan instead of just one big Saddam," said Ahmad Vahab, head imam at Erbil Mosque, and a Kurdistan Iraqi Union deputy in the Iraqi parliament"
Well they are Muslims, they do need to be controlled.
"Kemal Said Kadir, a journalist and a professor of law, was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment when he was arrested for criticizing Barzani and his family in one of his articles.'
30 years? got off lighly if you ask me, if it was up to Christopher he would have been strangled with suicide bomber entrails. That's the only language these people understand dontchaknow. |
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| General Hitchens
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# posted by Sonic : 1:52 PM
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On the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war Christopher produces a classic piece, full of retreats from previous predictions, lies, distortions and, as a conclusion a threat of violence that doubtless would have Christopher, and his twenty closest friends, demonstrating outside some embassy or other if it had been made by a Muslim group.
And it would have been worked too if it wasnt for those pesky French and that Scooby Doo
The start is classic Hitchens.
"Up until now, I have resisted all urges to assume the mantle of generalship and to describe how I personally would have waged a campaign to liberate Iraq."
Oh those urges, all those people demanding that Christopher give us the benefit of his long and distinguished military career and get us out of this mess. How has he resisted for so long?
(Perhaps someone should tell Mr H, that while he has been heroically holding back the urge to advise on military matters, someone using his name has been writing in Slate. ie How to ruin an occupation, but I digress)
" know that a lot of people feel that they were cheated or even lied into the war. It seems amazing to me that so many people have adopted the "Saddam Hussein? No problem!" view before the documents captured from his regime have even been translated, let alone analyzed."
What a step back this is, we have went from "Saddam had weapons", to "he had programmes", to "he had intentions" to "we have some documents that when we get them translated may show something or other."
"Saddam Hussein wanted, until the very last days, to maintain ambiguity about his possession of weapons of mass destruction" which is just a lie. There were inspectors in Iraq, Iraq was allowing them access. However that was never enough for Christopher and his neo-con allies. The inspectors were pulled out, thousands died and then it turned out there were no weapons, not a single one.
"And we also know..... that he hoped to retain his latent ability to restart production once the sanctions had been lifted or rendered ineffective"
So there we have it, we went to war because someone, who was ambigious, may have wanted to retain a latent ability.
Hardly 15 minutes and London is toast, or the smoking gun being a mushroom cloud, but it's all they have left.
Then the terror connection, an as proof we get, that bastion of authority that unimpeachable source, the Weekly Standard
Sad isn't it when even the writer trying to build something out of these documents has to admit that despite working for "two years" on the English translations "It's not an easy job. Some of the documents are forged. Others are hard to read after being damaged by fire, or the water used to extinguish those fires, in the days and weeks after the U.S. invasion. Making the job even more difficult is the fact that many of these documents have come from larger sets of documents that never made it to Doha"
A bunch of damaged documents, that may be forged. Still wait and see everyone, you never know, the smoking gun (non-mushroom cloud variety) may be in there somewhere)
I also find it fascinating that it has not occured to the Weekly Standard to just go out and employ someone who reads Arabic.
The end should not detain us much, Christopher has a flight of fancy about what would have happened if all the nations who opposed the war had joined in, with the rather pathetic excuse "Well, if everyone else is allowed to rewind the tape and replay it, so can I.
That is Christopher "assuming the mantle of Generalship", his entire stratagy consisting of a heartfelt wish that we were not in this mess. I suppose the analogy would be if Rommel took over the defence against D Day in 1944 and informed his troops that the only solution was for Hitler not to have invaded Russia in 1941. In both cases the only possible way to implement the chosen remedy would be to get hold of the Tardis.
General Hitchens may not have an answer to the carnage in Iraq, but that does not mean he does not have an answer to the tens of thousands of people who demonstrated against the war last weekend.
"I shall go on keeping score about this until the last phony pacifist has been strangled with the entrails of the last suicide-murderer."
It's not even worth getting worked up about, sure it's a threat, sure it is incitement to violence but it is also the desperate ramblings of a man who is watching his credibilty dissolve before his very eyes.
Three years on it seems we have found another casualty of the Iraq war.
update
That pesky Poorman tackles the same article with, as usual, far more elan and wit that I
On a White Horse |
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| Happy Anniversary
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# posted by Sonic : 7:21 PM
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"This will be no war -- there will be a fairly brief and ruthless military intervention.... The president will give an order. [The attack] will be rapid, accurate and dazzling
It will be greeted by the majority of the Iraqi people as an emancipation. And I say, bring it on."
Christopher Hitchens, in a 1/28/03 debate, cited in the Observer, 3/30/03
Still at least the Kurds are happy?
Oh |
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| Mr Hitchens, it seems your campaign has the momentum of a runaway train, why are you so popular?
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# posted by Sonic : 3:34 PM
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Here at HW we like to follow up on the stories that matter, and what could matter more than following up on Christopher's clarion call for demonstrations in support of a bunch of Danish right-wing lunatics god given right to piss off Muslims.
So how has it been going? and indeed how has the mighty political power of the mobilised blogosphere shown itself out on the streets.
The evil MSM(tm) is, of course, repressing the news of this mass movement which is sweeping all before it, but we members of the "Army of Davids"(tm)are not going to let the truth be repressed!
So here they are, the numbers that will shock every Islamonazifacistjihadcommunistdhimmimuslimofascist to the core (get on with it ED)
70 in Washington
almost 100 in New York
And now possibly, nearly, perhaps 100-150 in Toronto!
I bet the anti-war movement is worried. They have arranged a global day of action against the war Next weekend and since they do not have Atlas shrugged, Instapundit, Michelle Malkin or even Christopher on their side. How can they ever hope to match these numbers?
Update
Reader Tom chips in to tell me that there were "over 100 by the end" of the Washington Rally. Looks like that is about it for the anti-war side now. They could of course try using the pathetic argument that the actual attendance at a rally is unimportant, but who would fall for that hackneyed line?
Updated Update
It seems I was remiss in not mentioning the stunningly successful San Francisco Rally, from Michelle Malkin
"We started with about twenty people outside the Danish Embassy. There were a number of signs and Danish flags and a few American flags. Someone brought some Danish cookies and cheese and crackers to share with everyone. (Must have been a cheap round that one)
Ah but
"Bear in mind that today is perhaps the coldest day of the year in the Bay Area -- 47 degrees"
Ahh the shame
But the real storyis of course the fact that the despicable Main Stream Media ignored this throng!
"The local NBC affiliate sent a cameraman and a reporter, who briefly interviewed rally organizer Cinnamon Stillwell. They left after five minutes -- apparently we weren't large or loud enough. The local news coverage -- if there is any -- won't show that the rally eventually swelled to over fifty people. Apparently the only way for the mainstream media would consider it newsworthy would be if we were to riot, burn some flags, and perhaps destroy a cable car or two."
Or possibly get enough people to slow down the traffic? just a thought..
For more on this issue see the incisive account of "The only republican in San Francisco who not only did his darndest, standing around for Freedom(tm)like the champ he is, but also met an actual real life girl!
Isn't his face a picture!
Updated Update of the Updated Update
A picture is worth a thousand words, and in this case a picture is all that is needed to give us a sense of the North Carolina rally
Latest news
The good people of Chicago have weighed in with a massive show of strength, Nearly 50 people braved the harsh winter trecherously unreliable spring weather to display their homemade signs, drink beer and complain about how evil foreigners are stand up for freedom.
Indeed for students of this vast protest movement the Freedom folks site is one that is well worth studying, were else could one find such stirring sentiments as
"Lately I've been debating ilegal immigration issues with some folks and one element has really annoyed me. Mealy mouthed appeasement, the soft words of men who have no pride in self or country. Cowards.
I believe in American exceptionalism, I believe in it. It is an article of faith to me that America is a gret (sic) country, perhaps that idea is passe. Most people I speak with these days seem to have a bemused contempt for this country, this country that has blessed them beyond measure. Blessed them with peace and prosperity, hope, love, education, the list is almost endless, yet when I mention how great I think this land is people curl their lip as though I just waved a dog turd under their nose.
These appeasers tell me that we require the importation of foreign workers because Americans aren't smart enough, they tell me we must import physical laborers because Americans are too lazy. Well I call bullcrap on that!"
No wonder he is a fan of Christopher, their rhetorical style makes it difficult to tell them apart. |
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| Give peace a chance (surely some mistake?)
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Wednesday, March 08, 2006 |
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# posted by Sonic : 7:27 PM
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Many have been those who have greeted Christopher's latest piece in Slate, Let the exchange of trade and ideas with Iran begin as a welcome return to the shores of common sense. Sorry to be Mr Cynical but it's nonsense, the whole piece.
Lets take the opening anecdote.
" a family friend, moreover draped in a deep black chador, who stayed on the edge of the conversation. Finally she broke in to ask shyly, in faultless English, "Would it be possible for the Americans to invade just for a few days, get rid of the mullahs and the weapons, and then leave?"
My heart went out to her"
Think of those poor Iranians ears straining for the sound of the B52's of freedom swooping over the gulf, hoping to hear that sweet whistling noise as the cluster munitions of hope falling from the sky, to be joined by the joyfull booms of the JDams of liberty.
Unfortunately
"All the war games and simulations that I have seen have concluded that it isn't possible to disarm Iran by airstrikes.....
Professor Edward Luttwak claims, in the Wall Street Journal, that selective strikes could still retard or degrade the program, but this, if true, would only restate the problem in a different form."
That poor lady, still what can you do?
"This means that our options are down to three: reliance on the United Nations/European Union bargaining table, a "decapitating" military strike, or Nixon goes to China"
I dont see how any of these options "free" the poor lady in the chador who graced us with her comments in paragraph one. However it seems she is not really the issue, she was a mere passing stage prop, some local colour, before we get down to the real issue, which, as always, is what is in the interests of the USA and it's allies.
"The first being demonstrably useless and somewhat humiliating, and the second being possibly futile as well as hazardous, it might be worth giving some thought to the third of these.
As we can see it is "humiliating for the USA to have to negotiate, it is a superpower for goodness sake, what has diplomacy ever done for us eh? Tragically it also turns out that we can't bomb them, not for any concern for the people of Iran you understand, Christopher and his neocon chums are far above such mundane considerations as those, it's just that it wouldn't be effective.
In some ways it's like Iraq, the USA cannot stay and it cannot leave, so what is the solution? the way out of this dreadful connundrum.....
This.
"So, picture if you will the landing of Air Force One at Imam Khomeini International Airport. The president emerges, reclaims the U.S. Embassy in return for an equivalent in Washington and the un-freezing of Iran's financial assets.......A new era is possible, he goes on to say. America and the Shiite world have a common enemy in al-Qaida, just as they had in Slobodan Milosevic, the Taliban, and the Iraqi Baathists. America is home to a large and talented Iranian community. Let the exchange of trade and people and ideas begin! There might perhaps even be a ticklish-to-write paragraph, saying that America is not proud of everything it is has done in the past—most notably Jimmy Carter's criminal decision to permit Saddam to invade Iran."
No mention of the Lynch mob of US Republicans who would be meeting Mr Bush at the runway on his return, however space in Slate is limited and you cannot put everything in you would like.
There is not much more to detain us here, the dream continues for another paragraph where, after George's visit, the Iranians help "save" Iraq and a grateful, youthful population overthrows the regime and, no doubt, proceed to invite Walmart, MacDonalds and Haliburton to set up shop in central Tehran. In this imagined future we can see ourselves wandering through Azadi Square to see the statue of George Bush the great peacemaker, garlanded, as always, by flowers.
I think it was Chomsky who said that there was no point taking Christopher seriously as it was obvious by his writing that he no longer takes himself seriously. I think this article makes it game set and match to Noam. |
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| Could he be talking about our Christopher?
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# posted by Sonic : 4:31 PM
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Gary Younge in todays Guardian has an excellent article of much interest to the "brave defenders of free speech" who occasionally comment here, as well as this blog's subject.
Take a potshot at the powerless, and you too can win a medal of valour
Some excerpts
"the days when courage referred to those who take on the mighty against all odds and face the consequences are, apparently, over. For, when it comes to attacking the weak and backing the strong, "bravery" has somehow become the mot du jour. A couple of years ago a British journalist won a major award for columns supporting the Iraq war on the grounds that to do so was "brave". Whether the award was deserved is irrelevant; the judges' adjective is the issue.
What, after all, is "brave" about supporting the policies of both your government and the sole global superpower against a country that posed no threat?"
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"To align yourself with the powerful and then take aim at the powerless takes not one ounce of valour. To prop up prevailing hierarchies and orthodoxies rather than challenge them demands not a scintilla of bravery. True, like Summers, you may run into trouble. But just look who's covering your back. With the prevailing winds of war, prejudice or the state on your side, the odds are with you. Since the privileges you are defending are inherent in the commentariat - how many women, blacks, working-class people or Muslims get to speak, let alone be heard? - your worldview is constantly being reinforced.
It may still be the right thing to do - the weak should not be protected from criticism nor the strong denied praise solely on the grounds of their relative material strength. But those who choose Goliath's corner cannot then claim underdog status once David gets out his slingshot. Take the Danish cartoons. They were first printed in a country that supports the war in Iraq, where the far-right Danish People's party receives 13% of the vote and where, according to the Danish Institute for Human Rights, racially motivated crimes doubled between 2004 and 2005. Barely had the ink dried on sermons extolling western civilisation last month than scenes of colonial barbarism involving British troops beating Iraqis filled our screens. Soon after came more images from Abu Ghraib, showing a handcuffed Iraqi with mental-health problems taunted by US soldiers.
We saw him pounding his head on a cell door and hanging upside down from a top bunk, clothed only in his faeces. These cartoons did not appear in a vacuum. In publishing them the editor of Jyllands-Posten had illustrated not just an insensitive Islamophobic jibe but a racist mindset that has consequences for Muslims worldwide. He had a right to print them. But to do so in this context was an act of bigotry, not bravery. Underpinning this peculiar notion of courage is the feeble-minded obsession with political correctness - the ultimate refuge of the baseless argument and the clueless commentator."
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"There was a time when such words as "darkie", "paki", "puff", "spastic" and "coloured" were common currency. We have abandoned them for the same reason we no longer burn witches at the stake or stick orphaned children in the poor house. We have moved on. That's not political correctness but social and political progress. Not imposed by liberal diktat, but established by civic consensus. Those who are unwilling or unable to move on are welcome to those words and views. But like anyone else who engages in antisocial behaviour, once they act on those impulses they must live with the consequences of those actions. They might be crude, crass or contrarian; insensitive, ignorant or in denial. But whatever else they are, they are not brave" |
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| Is it me or is this just rather sad?
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# posted by Sonic : 4:13 PM
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From a blog reporting on a debate between Christopher and Hillel Halkin last week.
"Hitchens gleefully waving Mohammed cartoons that he intended to pass around at the end of the debate"
Now I can understand the freedon of speech issues involved here (while wondering about why these particular cartoons are all of the sudden the bechmark) and I can, at a push, understand the reasoning behind the lilliuputian demonstrations outside the Danish embassy ( while questioning the real motives if those involved)
However as these cartoons have, by general consensus, no artistic merit at all, and as their sole purpose was to delibrately provoke Muslims. Surely even the most virulent campaigner for free speech would be content to demand their right to be published, without feeling the need to carry around reams of copies to distribute to all and sundry. After all it's not as if anyone has not seen them yet.
Still perhaps I'm jumping the gun here and at his next debate on Israel Christopher will be dishing out photocopies of David Irving's latest peon to Hitler.
After the only issue involved here is free speech, isn't it? |
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| When Thieves Fall Out.
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Wednesday, March 01, 2006 |
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# posted by Sonic : 3:54 PM
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Re The End of Fukuyama
"Francis, you're my older brother, and I love you. But don't ever take sides with anyone against the family again. Ever."
“Send Francis off to do this! Send Francis off to do that! Let Francis take care of some Mickey Mouse intellectual controversy somewhere! Send Francis to declare the end of history and take the flack. I'm older Christopher, and I was stepped over!”
"That's the way they wanted it.
"It ain't the way I wanted it! I can handle things! I'm smart! Not like everybody says, like dumb! I'm smart and I want respect!"
"Francis, you're nothing to me now; not a brother, not a friend. I don't want to know you, or what you do, I know it was you Francis, you turned against the family. You broke my heart."
(aside) "I don't want anything to happen to him while my mother's alive."
(more soon) |
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