The pathological quality of the American right manifests itself in a thousand different ways, but this item in Media Matters is pretty special. It's the debate not so much about whether Obama lost Egypt -- oh yeah he clearly did. (When I lose something I try and retrace my steps, but I've never lost anything quite so big as a country of 80 million people -- with its own pyramids no less.)
No, the question is how did Obama lose it. By being black Jimmy Carter once again, a feckless hand wringer who fails to stand by our man. (Dick Morris suggests that he was black Harry Truman, evidently not understanding that Harry Truman somehow became a conservative Republican in the 1980s. Morris also acts like the question that faced Truman of "who lost China" was a legitimate one -- not a specious McCarthyite inquiry that had the seeds of disaster within it -- ask LBJ's ghost some time.)
And then there's Middle Eastern scholar Bill O'Reilly talking to rear echelon motherfucker Col. (ret.) Ralph Peters:
So sometimes there isn't anybody to support. And I think that's what all the presidents from Richard Nixon on up have thought about Egypt after Sadat was killed. And Sadat, you know, he was a nut crazy guy, Mubarak took over and every president, liberal Jimmy Carter, liberal Barack Obama, ok, they have to play ball with them because the alternative is Islamists, that's who is in the wings.
One shakes one's head -- Sadat was a nut crazy guy? Really? The man who made peace with Israel. Does O'Reilly realize that Nixon wasn't president when Sadat was killed? Does he realize that Carter never dealt with Mubarak because he wasn't the fucking president when Sadat was killed. Do you know who was Bill? Here's a hint: Yes, the Reagan Administration propped up Mubarak. And I'm not even saying that as a criticism -- merely a fact.
But what do you do with people who fill the airwaves with this kind of crap? They're beyond embarrassment really -- facts are for losers, for nuance mongers. (Who are much like war mongers, only armed with reference books rather than guns.)
Again, why don't we leave it to the Egyptian people to decide what they want.
Recent Comments