Posted on 08/26/2005 8:56:45 AM PDT by quidnunc
It is becoming nearly impossible to sort the extreme rhetoric of the antiwar Left from that of the fringe paleo-Right. Both see the Iraqi war through the same lenses: the American effort is bound to fail and is a deep reflection of American pathology.
An anguished Cindy Sheehan calls Bush "the world's biggest terrorist." And she goes on to blame Israel for the death of her son ("Yes, he was killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel").
Her antiwar venom could easily come right out of the mouth of a more calculating David Duke. Perhaps that's why he lauded her anti-Semitism: "Courageously she has gone to Texas near the ranch of President Bush and braved the elements and a hostile Jewish supremacist media."
This odd symbiosis began right after 9/11. Then the lunatic Left mused about the "pure chaos" of the falling "two huge buck teeth" twin towers, lamented that they were more full of Democrats than Republicans, and saw the strike as righteous payback from third-world victims.
The mirror-imaging fundamentalists and censors in turn saw the attack as an angry God's retribution either for an array of our mortal sins or America's tilting toward Israel.
In Iraq, the Left thinks we are unfairly destroying others; the ultra-Right that we are being destroyed ourselves. The former alleges that we are bullying in our global influence, the latter that we are collapsing from our decadence.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at victorhanson.com ...
VDH top 10! Woot!
Bump for tonight.
BTTT
Bookmarked.
There are some real loonies out there. I never new Lew Rockwell was that nuts---I knew they were "off," but this stuff is beyond kookburger.
If not, somebody tell him to get with it!
All the rest of the Neocons have.
I always had a problem with Lew Rockwell, not because of what he writes, but because everyone I have ever met online who liked Lew Rockwell was a troll. VDH's column confirmed my feelings on this matter.
Having noticed that Llewellyn Rockwell is nuts, just wait until you get a gander at paleolimpwrist Justin Raimondo and his/her/its antiwar.com. When Justin is not ruining Pat Buchanan's career, he is running his anti-Semitic and anti-American keyboard making even David Duke look rational by comparison. Justin: Beyond whatever is beyond kookburger (nice descriptive term!). Paleosurrendermonkeys all!
"Has VDH switched his Democrat registration yet?"
It doesn't make any difference to me.
ping
Yes, Antiwar.com is even worse. You took the words right out of my mouth, if you'll pardon the expression.
Nor to any other Bushbot.
bttt
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Justin Raimondo Used to post here until the Viking Kitties swooped down from the halls of Valhalla and smote him.
Lew Rockwell & Justin Raimondo
(I paraphrase)
Ordinarily they are insane, but they have lucid moments when they are merely stupid.
Heinrich Heine
Yes, he is a character. But I don't think he's crazy. He states what he believes. The problem is what he believes.
It's obvious which FReepers love sites like lewrockwell.com.
One of my favorite quotes is 'I wish I was half the man my dog thought I was'. I would like to add to that 'I wish I was half as smart as Victor Davis Hanson is'.
That said, I fear Victor (whom I've corresponded with on several occasions) is close to becoming Stephen Ambrose II: he now has tours, his own website with other "Western Way of War" writers (presumably his students who have gone on to bigger things); lectures, speeches, and I'm expecting an MTV appearance at any time :) Seriously, the danger here, as Ambrose demonstrated, is that there is only so much time, and accuracy is a historian's stock in trade. Grad students and research assistants can only do so much. Even a "god" like Paul Johnson made innumerable mistakes in his "History of the American People," and it's taken us four printings to excise all the errors from "A Patriot's History of the United States." Some were silly, having Saddam captured in 2004 rather than December 2003, but errors are errors, and when you start spreading yourself too thin, writing columns in NRO, Jewish World Review, leading tour groups, sooner or later the errors pile up and credibility starts to deteriorate.
My next book, "Why Americans Win Wars and Why the Left Hates It That We Do" is due out in Fall 2006, and if they are crucifying a giant like VDH, I can't wait to see what accusations they throw at me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.