From 50 years of our overstocked archives
Sam Smith, 2006 - The New Republic,
purveyor of cheap paradigms to the Washington elite, has included
some of your editor's comments on the current crisis in its "Idiocy
Watch," described as "our attempt to keep up with all
the dumb and outrageous things being said and written about America
and the terrorists."
The words in question
- "The World Trade Center disaster is a globalized version
of the Columbine High School disaster. When you bully people
long enough they are going to strike back," - were delivered
in a speech to a Green Party conference.
For a two sentence summation of a half century of Middle East
policy it's not all that bad. It certainly compares favorably
to the deadly and disastrous advice the New Republic has been
giving on the subject. Hear, for example, what comforting words
NR's Martin Paretz had to say back in 1982. He advised Israel
to deliver Palestine a "lasting military defeat" that
would "clarify to the Palestinians in the West Bank that
their struggle for an independent state has suffered a setback
of many years." Then "the Palestinians will be turned
into just another crushed nation, like the Kurds or the Afghans,"
and the Palestinian problem - which "is beginning to be
boring" - will be resolved."
The New Republic
staff, rather than describing as "idiots" those urging
a rational response, could better use their time apologizing
for their part in creating the crisis that America now faces.
And while they're it, they might explain how those crushed Afghans
came back to life.
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