Pride & Prejudices: How Americans have fooled selves about Iraq, and why they’ve had to(BARF Alert!)

Newsweek ^ | September 19, 2003 | Christopher Dickey

[Timesink]

Pride and Prejudices
How Americans have fooled themselves about the war in Iraq, and why they’ve had to

By Christopher Dickey

NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE

A sturdy-looking American matron in the audience at the American University of Paris grew redder by the second. She was listening to a panel talking about the Iraq war and its effect on U.S.-French relations, and she kept nodding her head like a pump building emotional pressure.


        FINALLY SHE exploded: “Surely these can’t be the only reasons we invaded Iraq!” the woman thundered, half scolding, but also half pleading. “Surely not!”
       What first upset her was my suggestion that, looking back, the French were right. They tried to stop the United States and Britain from rushing headlong into this mess. Don’t we wish they’d succeeded? (Readers, please address hate mail to shadowland@newsweek.com)

[...]

       As we went down the list, I could see the Nodding Woman’s problem was not that she didn’t believe us, it was that she did. She just desperately wanted other reasons, better reasons, some she could consider valid reasons for the price that Americans are paying in blood and treasure.

[Timesink]

Warning: This WILL make you vomit!

[Timesink]

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[concerned about politics]

What first upset her was my suggestion that, looking back, the French were right.

That's what the Al Quata think, anyway. I guess birds of a feather DO flock together.

[Leroy S. Mort]

Based on his bio, I'd surmise Mr. Dickey has "gone native".

Christopher Dickey

"A distinguished journalist and author, Christopher Dickey currently serves as Newsweek's Paris bureau chief (since 1995) and Middle East regional editor (since 1993). He reports on France's politics, economy and society, as well as breaking stories throughout southern Europe, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf.

"Dickey joined Newsweek in 1986 as Cairo bureau chief. He moved to the Paris bureau in 1988 and then back to Cairo again in 1992. He was given the additional post of Middle East regional editor in 1993. Dickey came to Newsweek from The Washington Post where he had served as Cairo bureau chief, Mexico City bureau chief, a metro reporter, managing editor of The Washington Post Magazine and assistant editor and columnist of the paper's Book World section."

[okie01]

Who is Christopher Dickey?

And why should I give a flying fig what he thinks?

[Free ThinkerNY]

What do you expect from Newsweak.

[WOSG]

Yes mega-barfer ... he has that arrogant sneering presumption of conclusions, without bothering to address or defend facts.

It's just assumed we are in aquagmire ..." cynicism, naiveté, arrogance and ignorance that dragged us into this quagmire "

NO justification. No evidence. Just "it's a quagmire and I told you so, you Ignoramus Yanks!"

[concerned about politics]

Warning: This WILL make you vomit!

I hope people stop buying this liberal rag out of total bordom. If they want to read irrational Bush Bashing, they can check out the DNC website for free.
Only total idiots would be swayed by this crap. They need to get a life.

[jimbokun]

Summary: America should let France dictate our foreign policy in order to make American ex-patriates in France more comfortable.

Also very interesting the article contains NOT A SINGLE REFERENCE TO THE THINGS HE CLAIMED BUSH SAID! Ever hear of Google? Not hard to find references to what you're referring to in this day and age, unless they don't exist.

[Dolphy]

What first upset her was my suggestion that, looking back, the French were right. They tried to stop the United States and Britain from rushing headlong into this mess.

The French were right? The same French that fought to lift the sanctions on Saddam even as he fired at US and British planes and ruled his country as a bloody tyrant? The same French who just wanted to give Saddam some more time because a decade wasn't long enough? The same French who now argue to hand Iraq over to the UN? And is that the same UN that ran the corrupt oil for food program that enriched the French, Germans and Russians and sat uselessly by as the people of Iraq suffered?

Yeah, the French know all about blood and treasure. They take their treasures at the expense of others blood and then have the audacity to lecture us. That's sort of like a rapist lecturing his victim on sexual morality.

[WillowyDame]

what is even sadder is that they all want bush to fail!

how can you b rooting for the country you live and breath in to fail!!

what good will that do you.

if the country suffer, we all get hit!! somehow!

the terrorists must just be grinning at our irresposible journalism.

read any aljazeerah. something (there are like 6 of them or more) they do not even bother writing any original anti- american articles. they just cut and paste the ones our press here spews!!

[Lunatic Fringe]

"rush to war"

12 years of sanctions and threats, but we "rushed to war."

[Peach]

When was the last time anyone flipped through a copy of Newsweek? It's looked EXACTLY like a comic book for the last few years.

[Timesink]

This article isn't in Newsweek itself, just on the web site. The only reason I noticed it is because it's being plugged on MSNBC's front page.

[Cindy]

Dear Timesink,

I'm not barfing because I stopped reading when I got to this sentence: "What first upset her was my suggestion that, looking back, the French were right."

Cindy

[Timesink]

afternoon bump