Antiwar.com Blog

Unlike some people at Antiwar.com, I am a fan of Reason magazine. Perhaps I am just nostalgic for my tenure at Reason, 32 years ago. I have forgiven their attempt to balance the pro-war and antiwar “libertarian” positions. At least the pro-war “libertarians” tried to justify their hawkishness with the intent of bringing liberty to people in other nations.

But even that justification seems to be a thing of the past.

Today’s article by Jonathan Rauch reads like something that could have appeared in any unprincipled newspaper. Rauch explains the difference between pacification and peacekeeping. He implies (incorrectly) that our pulling out of Vietnam is what led to the bloodbath in Cambodia.

Rauch offers no justification for staying in Iraq, other than to continue the “surge” because “it is working.” Rauch apparently does not believe that the surge will result in any sort of long-term success. In fact, he seems to think it’s hopeless: “My reading of the evidence is that Iraqi fundamentals are more conducive to war than peace, and that there is not much the United States can do to change that.”

Yet Rauch says the Democrats will pay a heavy political price if they stop supporting the surge: “If they managed to ram through a withdrawal or timetable on party lines this fall, when most Republicans think the surge is working, they would be flayed for a generation as the party that seized certain defeat from the jaws of possible victory. For years to come, Republicans would insist that Democratic pusillanimity emboldened jihadism, an ugly narrative that some are already rehearsing.” Luckily, says Rauch, it’s not possible for the Dems to stop the war, so they shouldn’t bother trying: “Fortunately, without Republican support, Democrats can’t pull the plug or impose a strict timetable this fall.”

Rauch concludes that our anger over the disastrous war “does not justify impatience. If Petraeus says he needs more time, he should get it. If he fails, a course correction won’t be long in coming. The 22nd Amendment has seen to that.”

One question for the editors of Reason: What has any of this to do with libertarianism?

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/07_09_10_scheuer.mp3]

MP3 here. (45:24)

“Well, you know, the only people taking ‘marching orders’ from Osama bin Laden, as far as I can tell, are every presidential candidate (Mr. Clinton and Mr. Bush) except Mr. Paul. Mr. Paul has it very square about what the motivation of our enemy is, and it’s certainly exactly what he said it is, intervention. …

“Really, it is the American political establishment that is marching to al Qaeda’s beat, not Mr. Paul.”

Michael Scheuer, former head analyst at the CIA’s bin Laden unit and author of Imperial Hubris, discusses:

• His view of the legitimacy of the new bin Laden tape and the mention of his book
• His belief that current U.S. foreign policy is exactly what bin Laden wants and that Rep. Ron Paul M.D. has the best understanding of the enemy’s motivations and how to deal with them
• The sad fact that bin Laden wins whether America leaves Iraq now or later
• The “near” and “far” enemy
• The situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan and what he believes should be done there
• Why he believes that al Qaeda wants to detonate a nuke here
• His support for the conclusions of Robert A. Pape in his book Dying to Win that suicide bombing is caused by foreign occupation and view of the role religion plays in al Qaeda’s motivation (they believe they’re defending theirs)
• The role of the mujahedeen in the 1999 Kosovo War
• The lack of threat posed to America by Syria and Iran and of cooperative links between Iran and al Qaeda
• The expansion of the war to Africa
• The impossibility of an “al Qaeda in Iraq” takeover in the event of U.S. withdrawal
• The degree of the danger that AQI represents in the long term
• The review by he and his CIA colleagues of the evidence of connections between Iraq and al Qaeda before the Iraq war and their report to George Tenet that there were none
• His view that the vast majority of post-9/11 domestic terrorism prosecutions have been bogus cases of entrapment
• Closed borders

Michael Scheuer is a 22-year veteran of the CIA and the author of Through Our Enemies Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America and Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror.

Scott’s previous interviews of Scheuer.

Ron Paul’s Reading List for the Farsighted.

From my Monday morning column, written on Sunday:

“At this dramatic turning point, bin Laden reappears with a half-hour long tape, the transcript of which can be found here, and there is something very odd about it, in that it reads like a political polemic that might have been written by an American.”

From the London Telegraph, posted pretty much simultaneously:

“A Californian heavy metal fan, who converted to Islam and became the first American to be charged with treason in half a century, has been fingered as the author of Osama bin Laden’s latest video lecture – which left the terror chief sounding like an anti-globalisation protester….

“American spy chiefs were quick to name Adam Gadahn, the head of al-Qaeda’s English language media operations, as the author of large sections of bin Laden’s broadcast.

“Last October, the 28-year-old ‘loner’ became the first American charged with treason since 1952, for appearing in a succession of al-Qaeda videos under the guise of ‘Azzam The American,’ in which he condemned globalisation and made American cultural references.”

For more on the curious case of Senor Gadahn, go here, here, and here.

The conventional wisdom is that Mike Huckabee is a Real Nice Guy, and his soft-spoken manner gives superficial credence to this assertion, and yet, like so much of the press corps groupthink that evolves over the course of a presidential campaign, it is a lot of malarkey: aside from his demagogic appeal to naked emotion over logic and facts in his contretemps with Ron Paul at the New Hampshire debate, Huckabee apparently leaves the dirtier smears to his local accomplices, according to the Nashua, New Hampshire Telegraph:

 “‘That guy (Paul) is the most un-American person in this country as far as I’m concerned,’’ said Hudson Republican Sen. Robert Clegg, a big Huckabee backer.”

Au contraire, Senor Clegg, methinks you are the rightful bearer of that title: the Most Un-American Person in This Country Award is yours hands down.

This kind of crap has got to stop: there will be a discussion of the war, and the foreign policy of this country, not only in the general election but in the primaries, too, and if that is “un-American” by comrade Clegg’s standards, then that’s just too damned bad, now, isn’t it? To call Ron Paul “un-American” because he opposes the Iraq war, and invokes a long Republican tradition of anti-interventionism in opposing our crazed foreign policy, is typical of the red-state fascist drivel that passes for Republicanism these days — but, you’ll notice, it isn’t working. No one believes that the Good Doctor, a man who swears by the Constitution and is arguably the most conservative member of Congress, is an anti-American subversive — not even, I’d be willing to bet, Gov. Huckabee.

Mike Huckabee is said to be a Real Nice Guy, at least that’s what the national press corps is telling us, and so now he faces a crucial test in the Nice-ness department: he ought to disavow Glegg’s mean-spirited smear, and acknowledge that Rep. Paul is as patriotic in his dissent as he, Huckabee, is sincere in his insistence that we must stay the course.

How about it, Governor? Or is the nice-ness angle just another of the Huckster‘s scams, like the “fair tax“?

Oh, and here’s Senator Clegg’s contact information, just in case you want to give him a piece of your mind:

Senate Office:
Statehouse
107 N. Main St., Room 124
Concord, N.H. 03301
(603) 271-8630
robert.clegg@leg.state.nh.us

Home:
39 Trigate Road
Hudson, N.H. 03051-5120
(603) 880-6193

And tell him Justin Raimondo sent you ….

UPDATE: And it isn’t like Clegg, New Hamsphire Senate majority leader, is just another rank-and-file Huckabee supporter: he traveled with Huckabee throughout Iowa, and has acted as a spokesman for the campaign. Clegg smearing Paul as “un-American” is like Huckabee saying the same thing.

According to The Drudge Report, General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker will appear exclusively on FOX News Channel on Monday at 9pm EDT for a one hour live interview with Brit Hume, following their testimony to Congress.

Prepare for the propaganda blitz…

Sometimes it seems like it. As the Webmaster for Antiwar.com, I get many critical letters every day. I get at least one letter from someone claiming to be a US soldier or veteran who seems to have the same philosophy as bin Laden: “If you don’t agree with us, we will kill you.”

The majority of them contain numerous misspellings and grammatical errors.

This morning I received this note from Maj. J. McCaffery, USMC. I am including the name and email address he gave since he listed it for publication.

Anti-war? Do yall seriously against all military action? I was in Haiti, Afghanistan, and Iraq and I can tell you right now its damn hippies like you who give us a bad name. If I had it my way id take my company straight into your heaquarters and put a end to your damn lies. You have no idea about the good that we do in those countries. All you do is sit your fat ass in a cubicle and read far left bullshit and pass it on a fact. We help more people in those nations than is getting reported. THE US IS NOT THE BAD GUYS. If you hate America so much, please do us all a favor and get the hell out.

~ Maj. J McCaffery USMC

It is such a shame. Many Americans seem willing to adopt the principles of the terrorist enemies: the violent destruction of those who don’t agree with them.

But I will close on a positive note. I received another email yesterday (I am withholding the name in this case, so as not to jeopardize him with the military):

I am an Army officer and a veteran. I am also a Libertarian who supports an isolationist approach to foreign policy. I am leaving the military soon because I am not willing to put my life on the line anymore for this current war. I love your website and agree with your cause. Good luck getting your message out to the world.
~ First Lt. xxxxx