Mark Steyn: The right side of history

The Spectator (U.K.) ^ | 03/05/05 | Mark Steyn

[Capriole]

Thanks for obeying the Mark Steyn Rule.

What does he mean, his wife is "not terribly political"? He must divorce her immediately and marry me!

[lepton]

the most sinister of all the neocons, the big bad Wolfowitz, the man whose name started with a scary animal and ended Jewishly.

Kuuuh-ZING!!! (And not at Mr. Wolfowitz)

[Irishguy]

actually this is better

FREE TIBET froma lefty

He’s advertising his moral virtue, not calling for action


and that my friends is the difference between THEM and US isnt it

LEFTY :He’s advertising his moral virtue, not calling for action

RIGHTY: He's calling for action, He’s not advertising his moral virtue

[eureka!]

marking for later

[You Dirty Rats]

We haven't heard too much criticism of Wolfie lately. Come to think of it, the 'Rats and their media allies haven't spoken much about foreign policy or overseas events in general for some time. It must have something to do with all of the horrible news coming out of the Middle East. Free elections, democratic protests, Saudis allowing women to vote -- what devastating news for the 'Rats, the Eurosnots, and bush-haters everywhere.

Meanwhile, Steyn just keeps getting better. His C-Span appearance was great! I just wish he had his own radio show -- but then I'd have to schedule my life around it!

[KC_Conspirator]

The entire concept of the ‘Arab street’ was lazy and condescending. With hindsight, the fellow travellers were let off far too easily when the Iron Curtain fell like a discarded burka. Little more than a decade later, they barely hesitated a moment before jumping in on the wrong side of history yet again — and this time without the excuse that the ideological virtues of communism had merely gone awry in practice. It’s hard to make that argument about Islamism or Baathism, though Rod Liddle gamely gave the latter a whirl. But personally I hope if ever I find myself one of the unfortunate subjects of a totalitarian dictatorship, that it’s Bush and the Republicans who take up my cause rather than the Left.

What a line!

[McGavin999]

Wow, is that a good one.

[BartMan1]

The other day I found myself, for the umpteenth time, driving in Vermont behind a Kerry/Edwards supporter whose vehicle also bore the slogan ‘FREE TIBET’. It must be great to be the guy with the printing contract for the ‘FREE TIBET’ stickers. Not so good to be the guy back in Tibet wondering when the freeing thereof will actually get under way. For a while, my otherwise not terribly political wife got extremely irritated by these stickers, demanding to know at a pancake breakfast at the local church what precisely some harmless hippy-dippy old neighbour of ours meant by the slogan he’d been proudly displaying decade in, decade out: ‘But what exactly are you doing to free Tibet?’ she demanded. ‘You’re not doing anything, are you?’ ‘Give the guy a break,’ I said back home. ‘He’s advertising his moral virtue, not calling for action. If Rumsfeld were to say, “Free Tibet? Jiminy, what a swell idea! The Third Infantry Division go in on Thursday”, the bumper-sticker crowd would be aghast.’

But for those of us on the arrogant unilateralist side of things, that’s not how it works. ‘FREE AFGHANISTAN’. Done. ‘FREE IRAQ’. Done. Given the paintwork I pull off every time I have to change the sticker, it might be easier for the remainder of the Bush presidency just to go around with ‘FREE [INSERT YOUR FETID TOTALITARIAN BASKET-CASE HERE]’. Not in your name? Don’t worry, it’s not.

I wish the big guy were alive to read this ...you know he would enjoy it so...

[tkathy]

Mark is just awesome! Witty, vicious and insightful all at the same time!

[Tax-chick]

Steyn is the One.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

How does a headless chicken squawk?

Very rapidly and with great anxiety.

Take a look at liberals. They may as well be headless, as they have no ideas, and they squawk constantly at those who do.

The only thing I don't like about Styen's articles is they are too short, no matter how long.

[thoughtomator]

By doing the chicken sign language for "squawk", of course.

[rudypoot]

thanks pokey for maintaining this ping list. It's much appreciated.

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks, Pokey! Classic Mark Steyn! Great article.

Mark Steyn: The right side of history

Excerpt:

The other day in the Guardian Martin Kettle wrote: ‘The war was a reckless, provocative, dangerous, lawless piece of unilateral arrogance. But it has nevertheless brought forth a desirable outcome which would not have been achieved at all, or so quickly, by the means that the critics advocated, right though they were in most respects.’

Very big of you, pal. And I guess that’s as close to a mea culpa as we’re going to get: even though Bush got everything wrong, it turned out right. Funny how that happens, isn’t it? In a few years’ time, they’ll have it down pat — just like they have with Eastern Europe. Oh, the Soviet bloc [the Middle East thugocracies] was bound to collapse anyway. Nothing to do with that simpleton Ronnie Raygun [Chimpy Bushitler]. In fact, all Raygun [Chimpy] did was delay the inevitable with his ridiculous arms build-up [illegal unprovoked Halliburton oil-grab], as many of us argued at the time: see my 1984 column ‘Yuri Andropov, The Young, Smart, Sexy New Face Of Soviet Communism’ [see the April 2004 Spectator column ‘Things Were Better Under Saddam: The coalition has destroyed Baathism, says Rod Liddle, and with it all hopes of the emergence of secular democracy’ — and yes, that really ran in these pages, on 17 April, not 1 April.]

By the way, when’s the next Not In Our Name rally? How about this Saturday? Millions of Nionists can flood into Trafalgar Square to proclaim to folks in Iraq and Lebanon and Egypt and Jordan and Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority that all the changes under way in the region are most certainly Not In Their Name. Among the celebrity Nionists, Harold Pinter should be available to denounce Blair as a ‘war criminal’ and a ‘hired Christian thug’ one mo’ time. For as the Guardian reported this week, the great man announced that ‘he has decided to abandon his career as a playwright in order to concentrate exclusively on politics’.

That’s great news, isn’t it? One of the reasons Mr Pinter was right only ‘in most respects’ (as Martin Kettle would put it) is that he had to fit being right about everything in between composing 11-minute plays. Now he can devote his energies to it full time I’ve no doubt he’ll be right in all respects.

As for me, I got a lot of things wrong these last three years, but, looking at events in the Middle East this last week, I’m glad that, unlike the Nionist Entity, I got the big stuff right. On 8 May 2003, a couple of weeks after the fall of Saddam, I wrote in the Speccie’s then sister paper the Jerusalem Post:

‘You don’t invade Iraq in order to invade everywhere else, you invade Iraq so you don’t have to invade everywhere else.’

And so it’s turned out.

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my General Interest ping list!. . .don't be shy.

[leilani]

"But for those of us on the arrogant unilateralist side of things, that’s not how it works. ‘FREE AFGHANISTAN’. Done. ‘FREE IRAQ’. Done. Given the paintwork I pull off every time I have to change the sticker, it might be easier for the remainder of the Bush presidency just to go around with ‘FREE [INSERT YOUR FETID TOTALITARIAN BASKET-CASE HERE]’. Not in your name? Don’t worry, it’s not."

As good as it gets. Mark Steyn, God bless him, is the only commentator who consistently nails the euroweenies and the american "left" for their craven hypocrisy: their accommodationist attitudes toward all these brutal islamofascist dictators is predicated on a thoroughly repugnant racial, ethnic & religious paternalism: 'Arabs (those mindless little sand monkeys)can't be expected to govern themselves in a civilized way.How dare this silly, intellectually impaired american cowboy even ask us to strain our imaginations contemplating such a ludicrous thing!' Scratch the BBC/CNN/AFP's reflexively condescending, blatantly patronizing attitudes towards the infamous "arab street" and their skepticism of the pie-in-the-sky notion that folks in the Middle East might actually enjoy, given the opportunity, excercising the same freedoms the paleocolonialists at these propaganda outlets take for granted, and what you've got is as baldy racist as anything David Duke has ever even tried to get away with claiming. Soft bigotry of low expectations? Meet stone-cold prejudice of no expectations. Scratch a little further and what inexorably bubbles up these days from the Blame America First crowd in London, Brussels, Berlin & their slavish devotees on the American "left" is a nasty strain of anti-semitism as overtly virulent as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion anyday, whether or not Abe Foxman lives long enough to finally get it. Mark Steyn really & truly is the only guy who's calling these twits with their phony "bumper-sticker" compassion for third-worlders what they really are.

[Pyro7480]

Try this link in Real Player: rtsp://cspanrm.fplive.net/cspan/project/ter/ter_wj022505_steyn.rm

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[headsonpikes]

...they are too short, no matter how long.

Ain't that the truth! He's like a cool drink of water on a hot day.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Mark Steyn, God bless him, is the only commentator who consistently nails the euroweenies and the American "left" for their craven hypocrisy:

Nope. He has a soul mate a fellow traveler in Ann Coulter. They should have children so the next generation can benefit.

[zeugma]

Is this a Steyn ping list? If so, I would surely appreciate your adding me to it. He freaking rocks.