She didn’t say what they wanted her to say

Posted on November 21, 2003 in Crosstalk Liberals & Progressives Occupation of Iraq

When David Horowitz throws together a panel, you can expect that it will consist of people who attack liberals as a class. Michelle Goldberg’s subtle distinctions escaped him however and she found herself In the Lion’s Den:

“Few liberals doubted the righteousness of ridding the world of Saddam,” I said. “They doubted the competence of the Bush administration not to make a mess of things. Can you really look at what’s happening in Iraq and say they were wrong?”

This, of course, was an obvious mistake, since much of the crowd shouted, “Yes!”

A little thrown, I continued, saying that many liberals would have supported a multilateral war waged on humanitarian grounds. They protested, though, because they “believed that the administration’s case for war was dishonest and its plan for occupation dangerous, and I suspect some of you know in your hearts that they were right.”

“Groups like ANSWER let you dismiss Bush’s opponents as loony nihilists,” I said, “but I met many people at antiwar demonstrations who have as much claim to American-ness as anyone at this conference, and they’re afraid of where you want to lead this country.”

I do not much like Goldberg’s definition of patriotism: that what makes a good American is a willingness to support “the right kind of war”. I would not have supported a war in Iraq, period, and I am a loyal American because I speak out, I vote, I pay my taxes without complaint. I owe Goldberg no thanks for her defense of antiwar spokespeople because she does not make a place at the table for me. Would the civilian casualty count be any less? Would the Iraqis have welcomed invaders if they had flown the United Nations flag? Goldberg is holding out the classic hope of war liberals: that there can be “good wars”. Tell that to the casualties, to the people torn by shrapnel, to the children reduced to blubber and blood by the concussion of a 500 pound bomb.

Still, I admire her guts for going in and telling the gray suits what was what as she saw it. But there’s more than the issue of the war that’s at stake here: there’s the bigger question of where Bush is going with the environment, with energy, with Medicare, and with our civil liberties. No matter how good his intentions, he’s a very very bad president.

My thanks to Kathryn Cramer for this link. It was worth the commercial.