Critiquing the Critics

You’ve probably already read the news reports on Dr. Jeffrey Record’s recent SSI study, claiming the Three Week War was a distraction from the War on Terror.

“Unlike most journalists,” Secular Blasphemy‘s Jan Haugland “actually read the entire report.” Here’s a key bit from his critique:

Of course, this monograph will be discussed mostly because of its arguments against the Iraq war. Indeed, it simply rehashes a lot of older arguments against the war that could have been written by any number of the more sober anti-war pundits around, so I see no reason why we should take them more serious just because the SSI label is stamped on them.

Dr Record’s opposition to the war, however, appears grounded in his belief that the war should be limited to hunting and destroying al-Qaeda. He is not unaware of the argument that it is necessary to remove the underlying causes of terrorism by starting a democratisation process in Iraq.

Read the whole thing.