Free Republic

To the British Left, William Shawcross is a traitor. The man who once excoriated Henry Kissinger for U.S. policies in Cambodia has become a devoted supporter of the Bush-Blair approach to foreign policy. His impressive new book, Allies: The U.S., Britain, Europe, and the War in Iraq, is a passionate call to arms in what Shawcross describes as "the most important battle of our time." He's not supposed to do that! And so now the venerated author of books such as Sideshow has landed himself on the British Left's list of turncoats. You know the one: It includes names like...

Even without WMD, more than a few liberals support invasion of Iraq. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The invasion of Iraq was a good thing for the entire region. Even without the existence of weapons of mass destruction, ridding the world of Saddam Hussein was a positive outcome. And it doesn't matter if the Bush administration may have come up with a completely different raison d'etre for the war after the first one (the existence of those WMD) didn't fly – freeing the Iraqi people from years of torture and fear is reason enough. Normally this kind of pro-war statement is attributed to conservative...

Restating the Case for WarWaiting for Saddam to change is what got us into this mess in the first place.By Christopher HitchensPosted Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2003, at 8:00 AM PT The following is a dense paragraph of apparent prescience that was first published in 1998: Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream, engaging in "mission creep," and incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible. We had been unable to find Noriega in Panama, which we knew intimately. We would have...

  The Pro-War Argument [from a leftist] Leon Wieseltier Literary Editor, The New Republic I think that Bill Clinton will go to hell for taking two and a half years to get into Bosnia after not doing anything at all about Rwanda.   There are two questions, I think, that all of us have been pondering. The first one is why is the Bush Administration proposing to launch this war? The second question is, should this war be launched? They're not the same question. Sometimes somebody that one admires does something that one cannot support. Sometimes someone that one does...

25-03-03 Liberation theology and the Iraq War Seamus Murphy SJ, draws on the theology of liberation developed in Latin America in the 1960s and asks how it might be applied to the war in Iraq. In Latin America in the 1960s, there emerged a way of doing theology known as the 'theology of liberation'. Its focus was the poor and the oppressed, its starting-point was their experience, and its inspiration was the God revealed in the story of the people of Israel. God, the merciful and the compassionate, is a God of justice on the side of the oppressed, and...

To the Editor: According to a June 3 letter writer, the only reason the president of the United States would visit Auschwitz is for a photo op "to make the case for his war against Iraq." I think of my aunt, and the other 1.5 million Jewish children murdered. I think of her because I do so constantly, but also because she was my first thought when I heard of Saddam Hussein's habit of torturing his opponents by torturing their children in front of them. Auschwitz does make a very convincing case for the war in Iraq, and with every...

A View from the Left: We, the TraitorsBy Adam MichnikGazeta Wyborcza (Warsaw) | May 29, 2003 A German journalist published an article in the paper Die Tageszeitung in which he claimed that Vaclav Havel, Adam Michnik, and George Konrad, Europe's long-standing moral authorities, had suddenly become undiscriminating admirers of America. I read that article with a twinge of nostalgia. Here we are, together again. Our three names were grouped to-gether for the first time by Timothy Garton Ash in his widely acclaimed essay nearly two decades ago. If I recall correctly, Havel and I were doing jail time then, and...

When the tank pulled Saddam’s statue down in Baghdad, and Iraqis—a small crowd of them, anyway—jumped on it, Tim Russert on MSNBC launched into a lecture to the Arab world. Will they show their people these pictures? he asked. Will they embrace democracy instead of terrorism? There was something of a bullying tone to the lecture, a warning to Arab culture that it must change, or else. Mr. Russert was expressing an ideology as strong, and self-satisfied, as the anti-communist ideology that was all over the airwaves in the 50’s and 60’s. The lecture was also a sign of the...

Two years ago I voted for Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. Upon George W. Bush's ascension into the White House, I found myself furious with him and vowed I would do whatever I could to campaign for the next future Democratic presidential candidate in 2004. Today, I am convinced that Bush may go down in history as one of America's greatest presidents. There's an old saying - a man doesn't make history - history makes the man. Nothing could be truer in the presidency of George W. Bush. When our enemies struck us in the heart...

War may indeed be a continuation of politics by other means. But as cataclysms, shocks and surprises accumulate, wars may often be most comfortably understood as continuations of other wars. Wars make most sense when they resemble wars already known. So generals always fight the last war, protesters object to the last war and debates rage over which last war is being resurrected. Right now the main contenders are Vietnam — with its heritage of mistrust, protest and murky, futile death — and World War II — with its heritage of virtue, necessity and high heroism. These models offer seemingly...

MONTREAL (AFP) - Nobel peace prize laureate Elie Wiesel said the war on Iraq (news - web sites) is justified and blamed unnamed European countries for failing to prevent it through pressuring President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). "If some European countries put as much pressure on Saddam Hussein as on (US President George W.) Bush, there would have been no war," he told a press conference in Montreal. "Saddam Hussein had to be disarmed (and) there were no other means," said the Nazi concentration camp survivor and author who was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1986 for...

When does living in a colony look better than life in an independent nation? An Iranian American woman, educated in the West and now living in Tehran with her two children, is rooting for the United States in its war in Iraq.

Why a Left-Leaning Feminist Backs the Pentagon By Shahla AziziFaithFreedom.org | April 4, 2003 When does living in a colony look better than life in an independent nation? An Iranian American woman, educated in the West and now living in Tehran with her two children, is rooting for the United States in its war in Iraq. TEHRAN, Iran--Why do I support the war in Iraq as I did the one in Afghanistan? Because it scares the hell out of the Muslim fundamentalists, my number one enemies here. Living in the United States for the past 20 years, I found it...

Why I Am Not MarchingBy Nat HentoffThe Village Voice | April 3, 2003 Often, the executions have been carried out by the Fedayeen Saddam, a paramilitary group headed by Mr. Hussein's oldest son, 38-year-old Uday. These men, masked and clad in black, make the women kneel in busy city squares, along crowded sidewalks, or in neighborhood plots, then behead them with swords. The families of some victims have claimed they were innocent of any crime save that of criticizing Mr. Hussein. —John F. Burns, "How Many People Has Hussein Killed?" The New York Times, January 26, 2003 I participated in...

Why I Didn't March This Time Their Tongues Were Cut Out for Slandering Hussein March 28th, 2003 3:30 PM Often, the executions have been carried out by the Fedayeen Saddam, a paramilitary group headed by Mr. Hussein's oldest son, 38-year-old Uday. These men, masked and clad in black, make the women kneel in busy city squares, along crowded sidewalks, or in neighborhood plots, then behead them with swords. The families of some victims have claimed they were innocent of any crime save that of criticizing Mr. Hussein. —John F. Burns, "How Many People Has Hussein Killed?" The New York Times,...

TEHRAN, Iran--Why do I support the war in Iraq as I did the one in Afghanistan? Because it scares the hell out of the Muslim fundamentalists, my number one enemies here. Living in the United States for the past 20 years, I found it easy to define my politics. I was a pro-choice, anti-war, anti-nukes Democrat. I demonstrated at the United Nations for Nelson Mandela and in Boston for Roe v. Wade. I have always been pro-Palestinian. Easy choices for a slightly left-leaning feminist. But now I am in my 40s, back in Iran, my country of origin, and I...

Their Tongues Were Cut Out for Slandering HusseinOften, the executions have been carried out by the Fedayeen Saddam, a paramilitary group headed by Mr. Hussein's oldest son, 38-year-old Uday. These men, masked and clad in black, make the women kneel in busy city squares, along crowded sidewalks, or in neighborhood plots, then behead them with swords. The families of some victims have claimed they were innocent of any crime save that of criticizing Mr. Hussein. —John F. Burns, "How Many People Has Hussein Killed?" New York Times, January 26, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I participated in many demonstrations against the Vietnam War,...

Their Tongues Were Cut Out for Slandering Hussein Often, the executions have been carried out by the Fedayeen Saddam, a paramilitary group headed by Mr. Hussein's oldest son, 38-year-old Uday. These men, masked and clad in black, make the women kneel in busy city squares, along crowded sidewalks, or in neighborhood plots, then behead them with swords. The families of some victims have claimed they were innocent of any crime save that of criticizing Mr. Hussein. —John F. Burns, "How Many People Has Hussein Killed?" The New York Times, January 26, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I participated in many demonstrations against the...

Christopher Hitchens' JourneyBy Scott Galupo and Daniel WattenbergWashington Times | March 25, 2003 "Mind your manners, Christopher. It's the only thing you Brits have left that's worth [a plugged nickel]."  So said historian Peter Collier in 1987 at the "Second Thoughts" conference, a gathering of recovered political radicals. Mr. Collier was admonishing Christopher Hitchens, the British-born essayist who was for decades a proud Trotskyist. With close friends Alexander Cockburn and Sidney Blumenthal and sundry other unreconstructed radicals, Mr. Hitchens had been volubly heckling repentant ex-lefties from the peanut gallery. How things change.Today, Mr. Hitchens and Mr. Blumenthal no longer speak...

I am reproached by my e-mails -- dismissed as a fool, condemned as a warmonger. How could I, a supposed liberal, support the war in Iraq? I have several reasons, but the most important has to do with a recurring dream I used to have. In it, I am entering Auschwitz. The dream is vivid. I am wearing a three-piece tweed suit, cut in the style of the period. My shirt is white, the collar tips turned up a bit. My tie is a brown, muted plaid. I enter the death camp along with hundreds of others, including the beautiful...