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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Thursday, March 13, 2003
 
Oriana on Iraq: I'd been waiting for this. And she says pretty much what I thought she'd say. As always, she's a bit over the top but mainly on target. And she has the same concern I expressed below about post-war Iraq.

But I don't know if I buy the idea that we could or should have taken out Saddam in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Half the world was opposed to us even taking out the Taliban, for chrissakes! I think we needed to get resolution 1441 first, to go before the world in good faith and try to get them on board. Now that they've refused, history will decide who was wrong.

Oriana asserts without explaining that 9/11 wouldn't have happened if Bush I had finished the job. A lot of people will take her to task for that. It's obviously impossible to know with certainty what would have happened, but I think a causal connection is very plausible. The 9/11 bombers were Saudis. We know that public opinion of the Bin Ladenite persuasion was severely inflamed by the stationing there of our troops throughout the 90's, and that this was one of his primary grievances against us. And why did we need to have those troops there? To "contain" Saddam. Remember how indefinite containment is the peaceful solution?

Her apology to Blair is classic Oriana, both in its megalomania (because, of course, his standing in the world is dependent on her approval don't you know) and its heartwarming passion. She admires integrity more than anything, and the guy deserves the praise. My bet is that she wrote this in Italian and translated it herself into English. Wonder if the original was published there.


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