(Note to literalists: the Watched column presently contains only a smattering of 'warblogs' because the facilitator of the template-change--Dr. Menlo--is not very familiar with them, and will be adding more as they are sent to him. Also, this blog may contain areas of allusion, satire, subtext, context and possibly even a dash of the surreal: wannabe lit-crits beware.)
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[Watch this space for: Pentagon and Petroleum, The Media is only as Liberal as the Corporations Who Own Them, Wash Down With, and Recalcify]
WARBLOGGER WATCH
Sunday, July 28, 2002
Warblogger Andrew Sullivan wastes no time in getting with the program. At the start of the propaganda effort against Iraq, Saddam Hussein was vilified as a new Hitler, capable of gassing the Kurds, his own people. On the remote date of February 22, 1998, in one of his predictable Sunday Times pieces (whoa! Bill Clinton was a draft dodger?! I'd certainly have forgotten if you didn't remind me every week!), Sullivan penned these words [emphasis added]:
If the president had had a coherent Iraq strategy for the past five years - covert, aggressive support for the Iraqi opposition, rigorous enforcement of sanctions, aid to Kurdish and Shi'ite separatists, a gradual tightening of the no-fly zone - he would have more than merely missile options today. No, I'm not saying that this crisis is ultimately the fault of the United States. It is ultimately the fault of Saddam Hussein.
Securing rights and justice (revenge, actually) for the Kurds was, until very recently, a chief rationalization for waging further war against Iraq. No more. Copies of the Washington Post containing the below had barely left the printing plant when Sullivan already changed his tack [emphasis added]:
A major goal of U.S. policy in a post-Hussein Iraq would be to prevent the creation of an independent state in the heavily Shiite south, or an independent Kurdish state in the north. To fulfill U.S. promises to Turkey and Arab states that Iraq would remain whole, a defense official said, "I think it is almost a certainty that we'd wind up doing a campaign against the Kurds and Shiites." That would represent a striking reversal of administration policy of supporting the Kurds against Baghdad.
Uh oh! Time for a new rationale/rationalization. Coming to the rescue, Sullivan forgets all about the Kurds on whose behalf he once exercised his rawmuslglutes and gleefully links to this L.A. Times opinion piece, which purports to show that warring with Iraq will contribute to peace in Palestine.
Ah, war...is there anything it can't do? posted by Anonymous4:06 PM
The Watchers
WBW: Keeping track of the war exhortations of the warbloggers.