(see 10 for introduction)
6 next
Tuesday John Nichols wrote about Tommy Thompson’s return to Wisconsin from the Bush cabinet, it’s not worth providing a link, that was his 103rd Capital Times column of the year and the 103rd time he’s failed to mention “Israel” (or “The Zionist Entity”).
It was nice to see that Commondreams posted Ray McGovern’s article on the major terrorism conference held in the wake of the publication of the study by a panel of the U.S. Defense Science Board. Bush’s exploitation of the “war on terrorism” and the amount of resources squandered therein are big concerns of John. One wonders, but not too much, if John read the article and recognized himself, if Commondreams is aware that one of its biggest contributors should have recognized himself.
The conference “proved to be highly instructive for what was not addressed.” Only “a rude question from the audience” raised the DSB study’s point that “Muslims do not ‘hate our freedom,’ but rather, they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights…”
In response to another questioner’s pressing, a RAND expert “acknowledged that the United States has a ‘bad reputation,’ but insisted that this is ‘unavoidable’ because, for example, U.S. support for Israel is ‘immutable.'” In other words, Lawrence of Arabia was wrong, everything is written.
Does it require courage to “state simply the conclusions that fall out of one’s analysis?” To paraphrase William Arrowsmith, is the intellectual climate at RAND and the New York Times as uncongenial to “telling it like it is” as the Mojave Desert to a clutch of Druid priests?”
Never mind, here’s the real question–does John Nichols have the courage of his immutability enough to make it through seven more columns without mentioning “Israel?” Remember, last year he copped out on December 30.
notes
As Associate Editor of The Capital Times, John does accomodate local activists on occasion, he did so Tuesday. If you think I’m being unfair to him or in honor of his streak, support the Rafah Playground project.
Alternet has posted a relevant speech by Russ Feingold over which John can gush safely.