Fisking John LeCarre...URL as soon as I can dredge it up..
"and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War."
...maybe for Islamofascism
"The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams."
Completely wrong. He was counting on weakness and fecklessness that he saw with Clinton. His "dreams" were crushed along with his body under hundreds of tons of rubble in Tora Bora.
"ensuring that a debate that should be ringing out in every town square is confined to the loftier columns of the East Coast press. "
Oh yes we all know how silent the voices of dissent have fallen under the jackbooted heel of John Ashcroft.
"The imminent war was planned years before bin Laden struck, but it was he who made it possible."
This is just stupid.
"Without bin Laden, the Bush junta would still be trying to explain such tricky matters as how it came to be elected in the first place;"
Um...by getting more electoral votes than Gore? (Never mind that every single recount conducted showed Bush to be the winner)
"Enron;"
So Bush is responsible for Enron's fraud and AA's shady bookeeping.
"its shameless favouring of the already-too-rich;"
I'd love to see the definition of too rich. LeCarre has lots and lots of money but I seriously doubt he sees himself as too rich.
"its reckless disregard for the world’s poor,"
How many poor people have you given your money to pal? We do try to help them by opening factories that pay far above average wages and in safe conditions and then we're savaged for "exploiting" them.
"the ecology"
Like those new diesel fuel emission standards that are the strictest ever?
"and a raft of unilaterally abrogated international treaties."
List them. And don't count treaties with countries that no longer exist.
"They might also have to be telling us why they support Israel in its continuing disregard for UN resolutions. "
Might just have something to do with them being the oasis of democracy and capitalism in a sea of tyranny and oppression.
"Quite what war 88 per cent of Americans think they are supporting is a lot less clear."
The war on terror. If you take your head out of your @ss once in a while you'd know that one.
"A war for how long, please? At what cost in American lives? At what cost to the American taxpayer’s pocket? At what cost — because most of those 88 per cent are thoroughly decent and humane people — in Iraqi lives? "
Whatever the cost in money or American blood expended or even in the accidental deaths of civilans is worth it. The cost of doing nothing is much much higher. Too high.
"A recent poll tells us that one in two Americans now believe Saddam was responsible for the attack on the World Trade Centre."
What poll? Where? This guy bandies numbers about with no cites and plays fast and loose with the facts.
"But the American public is not merely being misled. It is being browbeaten and kept in a state of ignorance and fear."
Yeah, we're wholly incapable of thinking for ourselves.
"The religious cant that will send American troops into battle is perhaps the most sickening aspect of this surreal war-to-be."
This is just silly. Never once has Bush (or anyone for that matter) decreed that this is a matter of God being on our side. For that, you'd have to look to the terrorists and to Saddam who frequently tell people that they are doing Allah's will and that he's on their side. For LeCarre to miss that most blindingly obvious point is either willfully ignorant or galactically stupid.
"Care for a few pointers?..."
It's all about oil. Please, not that again.
"But it’s still not personal, this war. It’s still necessary. It’s still God’s work. It’s still about bringing freedom and democracy to oppressed Iraqi people. "
This is the only part that he gets correct. Too bad he's being sarcastic.
"Baghdad represents no clear and present danger to its neighbours, and none to the US or Britain."
Of course not. Baghdad is a city. The problem is Saddam and his regime. If he really doesn't think Saddam poses a problem to his neighbors, perhaps he should talk to say, the Iranian, the Kuwaiti or the Kurds. Just a thought.
"Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction, if he’s still got them, will be peanuts by comparison with the stuff Israel or America could hurl at him at five minutes’ notice."
Yes but the difference is that we try everything possible NOT to use them. He can't wait to get them in order to use them.
"He will have helped to provoke unforeseeable retaliation, great domestic unrest, and regional chaos in the Middle East."
Right. Does he really think that absent any military intervetion these things would NOT occur?
Last Friday a friend of mine in California drove to his local supermarket with a sticker on his car saying: “Peace is also Patriotic”. It was gone by the time he’d finished shopping.
We all know about those warmongering Berkley types....
"and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War."
...maybe for Islamofascism
"The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams."
Completely wrong. He was counting on weakness and fecklessness that he saw with Clinton. His "dreams" were crushed along with his body under hundreds of tons of rubble in Tora Bora.
"ensuring that a debate that should be ringing out in every town square is confined to the loftier columns of the East Coast press. "
Oh yes we all know how silent the voices of dissent have fallen under the jackbooted heel of John Ashcroft.
"The imminent war was planned years before bin Laden struck, but it was he who made it possible."
This is just stupid.
"Without bin Laden, the Bush junta would still be trying to explain such tricky matters as how it came to be elected in the first place;"
Um...by getting more electoral votes than Gore? (Never mind that every single recount conducted showed Bush to be the winner)
"Enron;"
So Bush is responsible for Enron's fraud and AA's shady bookeeping.
"its shameless favouring of the already-too-rich;"
I'd love to see the definition of too rich. LeCarre has lots and lots of money but I seriously doubt he sees himself as too rich.
"its reckless disregard for the world’s poor,"
How many poor people have you given your money to pal? We do try to help them by opening factories that pay far above average wages and in safe conditions and then we're savaged for "exploiting" them.
"the ecology"
Like those new diesel fuel emission standards that are the strictest ever?
"and a raft of unilaterally abrogated international treaties."
List them. And don't count treaties with countries that no longer exist.
"They might also have to be telling us why they support Israel in its continuing disregard for UN resolutions. "
Might just have something to do with them being the oasis of democracy and capitalism in a sea of tyranny and oppression.
"Quite what war 88 per cent of Americans think they are supporting is a lot less clear."
The war on terror. If you take your head out of your @ss once in a while you'd know that one.
"A war for how long, please? At what cost in American lives? At what cost to the American taxpayer’s pocket? At what cost — because most of those 88 per cent are thoroughly decent and humane people — in Iraqi lives? "
Whatever the cost in money or American blood expended or even in the accidental deaths of civilans is worth it. The cost of doing nothing is much much higher. Too high.
"A recent poll tells us that one in two Americans now believe Saddam was responsible for the attack on the World Trade Centre."
What poll? Where? This guy bandies numbers about with no cites and plays fast and loose with the facts.
"But the American public is not merely being misled. It is being browbeaten and kept in a state of ignorance and fear."
Yeah, we're wholly incapable of thinking for ourselves.
"The religious cant that will send American troops into battle is perhaps the most sickening aspect of this surreal war-to-be."
This is just silly. Never once has Bush (or anyone for that matter) decreed that this is a matter of God being on our side. For that, you'd have to look to the terrorists and to Saddam who frequently tell people that they are doing Allah's will and that he's on their side. For LeCarre to miss that most blindingly obvious point is either willfully ignorant or galactically stupid.
"Care for a few pointers?..."
It's all about oil. Please, not that again.
"But it’s still not personal, this war. It’s still necessary. It’s still God’s work. It’s still about bringing freedom and democracy to oppressed Iraqi people. "
This is the only part that he gets correct. Too bad he's being sarcastic.
"Baghdad represents no clear and present danger to its neighbours, and none to the US or Britain."
Of course not. Baghdad is a city. The problem is Saddam and his regime. If he really doesn't think Saddam poses a problem to his neighbors, perhaps he should talk to say, the Iranian, the Kuwaiti or the Kurds. Just a thought.
"Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction, if he’s still got them, will be peanuts by comparison with the stuff Israel or America could hurl at him at five minutes’ notice."
Yes but the difference is that we try everything possible NOT to use them. He can't wait to get them in order to use them.
"He will have helped to provoke unforeseeable retaliation, great domestic unrest, and regional chaos in the Middle East."
Right. Does he really think that absent any military intervetion these things would NOT occur?
Last Friday a friend of mine in California drove to his local supermarket with a sticker on his car saying: “Peace is also Patriotic”. It was gone by the time he’d finished shopping.
We all know about those warmongering Berkley types....
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