Former Ambassador to Lebanon Properly Tells New York Times Where to Stuff It
Oh, about time. The New York Times ran this nauseous piece a few weeks back about Lebanon's Al Akhbar newspaper:
They are a remarkable blend: the paper champions gay rights, feminism and other leftist causes, even as it wholeheartedly supports Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite movement. ... Add splashy full-page color photos and witty tabloid-style headlines, and you have an alluring product.
Jeffrey Feltman, the former US Ambassador to Lebanon, replies in a letter to the Editor:
One of the curiosities I discovered as ambassador to Lebanon was the number of Western journalists, academics and nongovernmental representatives who, while enjoying the fine wines and nightlife of Beirut, romanticized Hezbollah and its associates like Al Akhbar as somehow the authentic voices of the oppressed Lebanese masses. Yet, I don’t think that many of those Western liberals would wish to live in a state dominated by an unaccountable clerical militia and with Al Akhbar providing the news.
Too damned right.
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Jul '10
Re: Former Ambassador to Lebanon Properly Tells New York Times Where to Stuff It
Useful idiots never die. They just change venues.
Re: Former Ambassador to Lebanon Properly Tells New York Times Where to Stuff It
Oh, they die. As soon as they stop being useful.
Re: Former Ambassador to Lebanon Properly Tells New York Times Where to Stuff It
What the left and Hezbollah have in common is that which they hate. The enemy of my enemy, they think, is my friend.
May '10
Re: Former Ambassador to Lebanon Properly Tells New York Times Where to Stuff It
Indeed! That is what Lenin called his pawns, "useful fools." And die they did.
We are living in interesting times.
Edited on Jan 10, 2011 at 11:13amOct '10
Re: Former Ambassador to Lebanon Properly Tells New York Times Where to Stuff It
I've often wondered what makes the left support these groups and others, like Hamas, especially given that they're not very tolerant of gays and women. Is it just a case of cognitive dissonance? Are they single-issue supporters of these groups because they view them as oppressed and overlook everything else?
May '10
Re: Former Ambassador to Lebanon Properly Tells New York Times Where to Stuff It
bereket kelile I've often wondered what makes the left support these groups and others, like Hamas, especially given that they're not very tolerant of gays and women.
(...not to mention secular leftists.)
Nihilism maybe? The Marxist experiment failed--repeatedly and spectacularly. In practice it was always a disaster, and its theory was discredited. Thus, with no positive ideological vision to fight for, all that the left still posessed was something to fight against, the Western liberal democratic idea.
In the past the left would express solidarity with leftist (communist and fascist) thugs and terrorists in the Middle East, but would strongly oppose islamist regimes. Now the left will support even the most violently evil islamists.
May '10
Re: Former Ambassador to Lebanon Properly Tells New York Times Where to Stuff It
Addendum: The Marxist dream was always stupid and evil, but the current embrace of previously rejected monsters merely emphasizes how evil and anti-human it is.