The New Republic‘s Jonathan Chait makes the liberal case for war:
Deluded by the hope that they can have multilateralism and disarmament without the risk of war, liberals have concentrated their intellectual energies on the slim possibility that the United Nations will approve an airtight inspections system and that Saddam will submit to it. If that happens, they would not support a unilateral Bush war. And for that matter, neither would I. But the chance of that happening is small. We have eleven years of accumulated evidence suggesting that the United Nations will not approve loophole-free inspections and that even if it does, Saddam will defy it once more. Which is why it’s strange to find so many liberals who consider themselves antiwar conceding that, if all else fails, they would support military action against Iraq. “All else” has failed for more than a decade. And barring a profound character reversal by Saddam, “all else” will likely fail again in the coming months. Just how many times are we supposed to go down this road before we realize our last resort may be our only option?
How many times do I have to remind you that “liberal” isn’t synonymous with “stupid?”
OK, its not synonymous … but the correlation approaches 1.0 within a 95% confidence interval.
Robin, you stole my thunder (and so elegantly, too!).
When a far right conservative acts foolishly, the majority of those right of center generally don’t hesitate to call them on it (see Falwell, Buchanan et. al.). When a far left liberal acts foolishly, (from the Clintonsand and Kennedys to the WTO protesters) those left of center, more often than not, just circle the wagons. This often makes “liberal” appear to equal stupid.
Thank you dear lady.
Perhaps it’s not that liberals are all stupid, but that stupid people are all liberals.
Stupid conservatives tend to be insecure. They suspect they might be stupid but aren’t sure. Stupid liberals are smugly convinced of their rightness, which makes them more irritating.
How many times do you need to remind us? As often as Gore, Kennedy, Wellstone, or Daschle find a podium, I guess.
Sure gets to be a pain in the butt to hear the name calling from the Right and the Left. New Republic is very very pro-Israel. Now whether you like this or not is besides the point but it explains where they are at. Saddam is giving 25 thou to the families of every suicide bomber and that, it seems to me, is a heck of a good reason those sympathetic to Israel would like to see him done in. But there’s more:
Look at map of Iraq! To the North=Turkey, a friend; to the Spouth, Israel, a friend. To the West Iran–axis of evil; to the east, Lebanon and Syria, axis of evil.
We occupy Iraq (like S. Korea) and we have air bases for hitting out if need be at those two countries. Plus: we and not Saddam or Russia control who gets oil and at what cost.
And this is why TNR supports war…and sounds cool to me.