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Liberal "journalist" wants us to lose Iraqi war
Instapundit ^ | 5/13/04 | Toby Harnden

Posted on 05/13/2004 4:19:16 PM PDT by pookie18

YOU KNOW, sometimes I feel like maybe I'm too harsh in my charges of media bias. Then I read accounts like this one from Baghdad, by the Daily Telegraph's correspondent Toby Harnden:

The other day, while taking a break by the Al-Hamra Hotel pool, fringed with the usual cast of tattooed defence contractors, I was accosted by an American magazine journalist of serious accomplishment and impeccable liberal credentials.

She had been disturbed by my argument that Iraqis were better off than they had been under Saddam and I was now — there was no choice about this — going to have to justify my bizarre and dangerous views. I’ll spare you most of the details because you know the script — no WMD, no ‘imminent threat’ (though the point was to deal with Saddam before such a threat could emerge), a diversion from the hunt for bin Laden, enraging the Arab world. Etcetera.

But then she came to the point. Not only had she ‘known’ the Iraq war would fail but she considered it essential that it did so because this would ensure that the ‘evil’ George W. Bush would no longer be running her country. Her editors back on the East Coast were giggling, she said, over what a disaster Iraq had turned out to be. ‘Lots of us talk about how awful it would be if this worked out.’ Startled by her candour, I asked whether thousands more dead Iraqis would be a good thing.

She nodded and mumbled something about Bush needing to go. By this logic, I ventured, another September 11 on, say, September 11 would be perfect for pushing up John Kerry’s poll numbers. ‘Well, that’s different — that would be Americans,’ she said, haltingly. ‘I guess I’m a bit of an isolationist.’ That’s one way of putting it.

The moral degeneracy of these sentiments didn’t really hit me until later when I dined at the home of Abu Salah, a father of six who took over as the Daily Telegraph’s chief driver in Baghdad when his predecessor was killed a year ago.

Moral degeneracy, indeed. You hate to think that any American journalist could feel this way, but we've had other admissions of this sort in the past. To explain things in words of few syllables: It's wrong to root for your country's defeat. Especially when that defeat would mean the death of innocents. And surely it's worse still when it's merely for domestic political advantage.

Isn't it?


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 05/13/2004 4:19:17 PM PDT by pookie18
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To: pookie18

The temptation to hold her under the water until bubbles stopped coming up would have been too great for me to resist.


2 posted on 05/13/2004 4:23:02 PM PDT by Jaysun (If a person says that he enjoys the opera, that person is a liar.)
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To: Jaysun
"Been there, done that"


3 posted on 05/13/2004 4:27:08 PM PDT by pookie18
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To: pookie18
To all anti American/war Journalists, I say...

4 posted on 05/13/2004 4:28:54 PM PDT by Smartass ( BUSH & CHENEY IN 2004 - Si vis pacem, para bellum)
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To: Jaysun
The temptation to hold her under the water until bubbles stopped coming up would have been too great for me to resist.

Stress: The confusion created when the mind overrides the body's basic desire to choke the living $hit out of some a$$hole that desperately deserves it.....

5 posted on 05/13/2004 4:32:22 PM PDT by dirtbiker (Solution for Terrorism: Nuke 'em 'till they glow, then shoot 'em in the dark!)
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To: pookie18

Just Damn!!!! Don't ever post a picture of that bloated, drunken degenerate again!!!! I have small children at home.....


6 posted on 05/13/2004 4:34:12 PM PDT by dirtbiker (Solution for Terrorism: Nuke 'em 'till they glow, then shoot 'em in the dark!)
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To: pookie18

I wish we'd been given the name of this reporter and her publication.

Without that information it's hard to belive the story is true -- it's hard to believe anyone could really be that depraved. And if it is true, the guilty parties certainly deserve to be exposed.


7 posted on 05/13/2004 4:34:50 PM PDT by 68skylark (.)
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To: dirtbiker

BTW, it's Jabba the Butt, not Jabba the Hut, in this case......


8 posted on 05/13/2004 4:35:20 PM PDT by dirtbiker (Solution for Terrorism: Nuke 'em 'till they glow, then shoot 'em in the dark!)
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

To: 68skylark

Yup. Apparently, its more important for the author to keep his friends and contacts among fellow journalists than to reveal the name of the reporter involved. That knocks the author down a peg or two in my view.


10 posted on 05/13/2004 4:51:04 PM PDT by XJarhead
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To: dirtbiker

I think it is Bubba the Tub, in this case...


11 posted on 05/13/2004 4:55:14 PM PDT by lancer (If you are not with us, you are against us!)
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To: pookie18

I've been saying all along that liberals are not afraid that we will fail in Iraq, they are terrified that we might succeed.


12 posted on 05/13/2004 5:10:17 PM PDT by driftless ( For life-long happiness, learn how to play the accordion.)
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To: slicingfoul

Before going RINO on JFKennedy, check out U. S. News and World Report, Dec. 24, 1963. A brief qoute, "In short, it is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low- and the soundest way to raise revenues in the long run is to cut rates now."

I can think of a number of serving Republicans I wish held this close to our platform. The rest of the speech is similarly surprising and worth digging up. Kennedy could not get the Dem nomination today.


13 posted on 05/13/2004 5:19:23 PM PDT by barkeep
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To: barkeep

I was showing JFK's inaugural speech to my classes today, and I was struck by a few sections in which he sounded exactly like George W. Bush. In fact, it was areas Bush has been criticized for...see what you freepers think...

#1 "...the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God."

#2 " Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

His brother Teddy should be ashamed of himself...


14 posted on 05/13/2004 5:53:56 PM PDT by Keith (IT'S ABOUT THE JUDGES)
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To: dirtbiker
Stress: The confusion created when the mind overrides the body's basic desire to choke the living $hit out of some a$$hole that desperately deserves it.....

I'm sending that to Merriam-Webster to be placed in their dictionary. By the way, if you ever need a to use a dictionary or thesaurus it's free on-line at:
www.m-w.com
15 posted on 05/14/2004 8:42:08 AM PDT by Jaysun (If a person says that he enjoys the opera, that person is a liar.)
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To: pookie18

bump


16 posted on 05/15/2004 7:22:45 PM PDT by lowbridge ("You are an American. You are my brother. I would die for you." -Kurdish Sergeant)
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To: pookie18
From Salon By Gary Kamiya

http://salon.com/opinion/feature/2003/04/11/liberation/print.html

"I have a confession: I have at times, as the war has unfolded, secretly wished for things to go wrong. Wished for the Iraqis to be more nationalistic, to resist longer. Wished for the Arab world to rise up in rage. Wished for all the things we feared would happen. I'm not alone: A number of serious, intelligent, morally sensitive people who oppose the war have told me they have had identical feelings."

17 posted on 05/15/2004 7:25:15 PM PDT by lowbridge ("You are an American. You are my brother. I would die for you." -Kurdish Sergeant)
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