Krauthammer: Hoaxes, Hype and Humiliation

Washington Post ^ | 06/13/03 | Charles Krauthammer

[Pokey78]

"It took only 48 hours for the museum to be destroyed, with at least 170,000 artifacts carried away by looters."

-- New York Times, April 13

"You'd have to go back centuries, to the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258, to find looting on this scale."

-- British archaeologist Eleanor Robson, New York Times, April 16

Well, not really. Turns out the Iraqi National Museum lost not 170,000 treasures but 33. You'd have to go back centuries, say, to the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258, to find mendacity on this scale.

[Pokey78]

Pinging Krauthammer's list.

[IGOTMINE]

THE HAMMER!

[American in Israel]

Pinging Krauthammer's list.

Thanks!

[American in Israel]

Everyone thought Hussein had weapons because we knew for sure he had them five years ago and there was no evidence that he had disposed of them. The weapons-hyping charge is nothing more than the Iraqi museum story Part II: A way for opponents of the war -- deeply embarrassed by the mass graves, torture chambers and grotesque palaces discovered after the war -- to change the subject and relieve themselves of the shame of having opposed the liberation of 25 million people.

Outstanding!

[budwiesest]

to change the subject and relieve themselves of the shame of having opposed the liberation of 25 million people.

"It's the weapons of mass destruction, stupid".

Charles takes this sign and shoves it right up the rear of the Left. Good article.

[secret garden]

Off topic, why is Krauthammer in a wheelchair?

[Pokey78]

A diving accident.

[stylin19a]

The absolute best thing happend because of this. 3 X42i holdovers on the President's Advisory Committee on Cultural Property believed the lie and resigned.

[motherof 3]

After a day of news hype Krauthammer and Brit Hume make he think the world is still sane.

[kitchen]

The weapons-hyping charge is nothing more than the Iraqi museum story Part II: A way for opponents of the war -- deeply embarrassed by the mass graves, torture chambers and grotesque palaces discovered after the war -- to change the subject and relieve themselves of the shame of having opposed the liberation of 25 million people.

The full sentence is even more powerful.

[GOPJ]

LOL:

Well, not really. Turns out the Iraqi National Museum lost not 170,000 treasures but 33. You'd have to go back centuries, say, to the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258, to find mendacity on this scale.

[GOPJ]

LOL:

Well, not really. Turns out the Iraqi National Museum lost not 170,000 treasures but 33. You'd have to go back centuries, say, to the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258, to find mendacity on this scale.

[Ken H]

There was no Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258.

These are criminal lies!

[CyberAnt]

Wow! I just couldn't agree more!!

[breakem]

Maybe a Mongolian Bar-B-Q?

[Russell Scott]

The narcissism, the sheer snobbery of this statement, is staggering. The toppling of Saddam Hussein freed 25 million people from 30 years of torture, murder, war, starvation and impoverishment at the hands of a psychopathic family that matched Stalin for cruelty but took far more pleasure in it. For Upper West Side liberalism, this matters less than the destruction of a museum.

The hammer could have added "many Upper West Side liberals applauded the 9/11 attack, finally relieved that the Twin Tower eye sore was gone."

[Tamzee]

Wow.... excellent column!

Too many fantastic quotes to pull out :-)

A keeper...

[nopardons]

Charles is great and this article is fantastic !

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks, Pokey ! Great article !

Krauthammer: Hoaxes, Hype and Humiliation

Excerpt:

Frank Rich best captured the spirit of antiwar vindication when he wrote (New York Times, April 27) that "the pillaging of the Baghdad museum has become more of a symbol of Baghdad's fall than the toppling of a less exalted artistic asset, the Saddam statue."

The narcissism, the sheer snobbery of this statement, is staggering. The toppling of Saddam Hussein freed 25 million people from 30 years of torture, murder, war, starvation and impoverishment at the hands of a psychopathic family that matched Stalin for cruelty but took far more pleasure in it. For Upper West Side liberalism, this matters less than the destruction of a museum.

Which didn't even happen! What now becomes of Rich's judgment that the destruction of the museum constitutes "the naked revelation of our worst instincts at the very dawn of our grandiose project to bring democratic values to the Middle East"? Does he admit that this judgment was nothing but a naked revelation of the cheapest instincts of the antiwar left -- that, shamed by the jubilation of Iraqis upon their liberation, a liberation the Western left did everything it could to prevent, the left desperately sought to change the subject and taint the victory?

Hardly. The left simply moved on to another change of subject: the "hyping" of the weapons of mass destruction.

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