Dagger in hand

A man of prodigious fortune, coming to add his opinion to some light discussion that was going on casually at his table, began precisely thus: "It can only be a liar or an ignoramus who will say otherwise than," and so on. Pursue that philosophical point, dagger in hand.

--Michel de Montaigne, Of the art of discussion.



Stab back: cmnewman99-at-yahoo.com


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Saturday, August 24, 2002
 
AS BUGS WOULD SAY, "YOU REALIZE OF COURSE..."If this story checks out, it may well amount to the casus belli everyone's been waiting for. Something about it though, strikes me as almost too pat to be believable. It just seems so made to order. And then there's this passage:
With the prospect increasing of the US launching a military campaign to overthrow Saddam, however, the Iraqi dictator was keen to combine Abu Nidal's expertise with the enthusiasm of al-Qa'eda's fanatical fighters to launch a fresh wave of terror attacks. In this way, Saddam hoped to disrupt Washington's plans to overthrow him.

He's a murdering thug, yes. But is he really that stupid? Launching fresh terror attacks is going to disrupt Washington's war plans? Can anyone think of anything that would make an invasion of Iraq more certain? I would have thought that if he had half a brain he'd have spent the past few months praying that nobody pulled anything else off over here until the heat was off him. But maybe not. Maybe he is that detached from reality.

UPDATE: Perry over at Samizdata thinks this one smells too.


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