An Embarrassment to Our Country
Found the above from the clip from 'Fahrenheit 911' which was what I was going to use, but this is so much better. Enjoy.
I remembered that Nick Cohen liked Paul Wolfowitz, but I'd forgotten (or perhaps tried to suppress) how much. A Google search found the splendidly titled Nick ****ing Cohen by Mark Steel, Nick Cohen back-pedals, rather furiously by Sunny Hundal (full disclosure: I met Sunny and Anton Vowl, who gets a mention, on Friday) and Azal Nafisi dedication to Paul Wolfowitz – Nick Cohen is wrong. Obviously, I had to read those last four words a few times before I could take them in. I've never heard the like.
Here's Nick from 2006:
The figures don’t justify the cost-cutting charge – World Bank lending has risen on Wolfowitz’s watch – but I think I understand the roots of the disquiet he generates. Wolfowitz is a conservative who, during his career, has championed democracy in the Philippines and Indonesia, feminism in Iran and opposition to Saddam Hussein in Iraq, causes that were once the preserve of the liberal-left.
...
I hope you can see that Wolfowitz agitates so many people because he raises questions that have no easy answers.
Now I know that the whole 'Bush = Hitler' thing is old, but really what comes to your mind when you read the words Human Experimentation [on prisoners]?
This is not pretty.
The Wolfowitz directive also changes language that had required DoD researchers to strictly adhere to the Nuremberg Directives for Human Experimentation and other precedents when conducting human subject research.
We are still the good guys, right?
posted by Chardonnay Chap at 10/24/2010 03:15:00 PM
3 Comments:
For the historical record, the case that Wolfowitz "championed democracy in the Philippines" was desparately thin. At the last moment, after the MArco's were facign a revolution, Woflowitz was among those Reaganauts arguing to ditch the dictator. However, in the years preceding Wolfowitz was the dictators chum - the charmingly named Cardinal Sin begged Wolfowitz not to send weapons to bolster the Marcos regime, but Wolfie went ahead anyway, in the name of "anti Communism
"For the historical record, the case that Wolfowitz "championed democracy in the Philippines" was desparately thin"
And for Indonesia, what the hell did Wolfowitz ever do for democracy in Indonesia? except say "I supported democracy under Suharto" the support was obviously declaring a few years later that Indonesia was much happier place under Suharto's regime.
And just for the record....
Hugh Hewitt and Christopher Hitchens on Harry Reid
CH: A Mormon mediocrity, and extraordinary, sort of reactionary, nullity.
HH: Now isn't that bigoted to say a Mormon mediocrity, Christopher Hitchens?
CH: No, no. I'm always in favor of pointing out which cult people belong to.
HH: You see, I think that is very, very harsh and offensive, but I will allow the Mormon listeners to call you on that.
CH: No, he's a Smithite, for Heaven's sake. I mean, he believes that some idiot found gold plates buried in the ground.
HH: But it is religious bigotry to call that out. And do you make similar comments...
CH: No, it's not me who says he's a Mormon. Excuse me, it's he who says it.
HH: I know that, but I still think...
CH: I say that anyone who believes that stuff is an idiot.
HH: I know you believe that, but isn't it sort of randomly bigoted to bring that out and throw it onto the table?
CH: Not at all, no. It's essential to point out...
HH: I disagree.
CH: Especially at a time when people are always saying it's the Republican Party that's run by religious crackpots and nutbags. And it's very important to point out these people have a big foothold in the Democratic Party, too...
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