One wonders whether Holbrook has considered any possible consequences from the 1 million refugees fleeing the fighting now. Not that he cares…
Tom Ricks to Antiwar.com: Get Off of My Cloud!
Anointed Washington Surge scribe Thomas Ricks takes Antiwar.com to task for writing “about an area about which they know absolutely freaking nothing,” referring to my current piece on Gian Gentile: Exposing Counterfeit COIN. To his mind and of the COIN clique he runs with online, writing about the war should be left to practitioners and military theorists, and of course, Washington Post special war correspondents and senior fellows at the Center for a New American Security.
Certainly not any operation calling itself “Antiwar.” (Note to Ricks: Try to take more than two minutes to check out the site, then you’d find out how we feel about “predatory strikes” and “protecting the population.”)
Like many Washington types who ride a singular moment — say a war, a Surge, the rising stars of generals named Petraeus and Odierno –to such breathless heights of Washington success and sycophancy, there is a tendency towards peevishness when any of it is questioned. It’s territorial, and I can understand that. Thus Ricks reacts by reminding us of his bonefides in Iraq, and is so quick to defend the Washington think tank where he now hangs his hat. Don’t worry, we’ll get off of your cloud.
Remember Fallujah?
Friday on Antiwar Radio I’ll be talking with Mark Manning whose award-winning film “The Road to Fallujah,” about his travel there just after the massacre of November, 2004, recently premiered. (2-4 eastern.)
It is a great film and should be a great interview as well.
(The best part about watching films like this noticing how little American TV portrays what it is like for those left alive in the country they helped destroy.)
Ron Paul, Surveillance, & the GOP
David Weigel has a good piece in the Washington Independent today on Ron Paul ‘s rising influence in Washington. The articles mentions that Ron Paul has been bringing in some folks to have lunch and discuss ideas with some of his Republican colleagues. The article includes a quote from me: “There’s a growing recognition that the GOP is intellectually bankrupt and morally bankrupt…. I hope the battle of ideas is changing.”
When I was the guest at a luncheon discussion in Paul’s office last Thursday, I spoke primarily about torture and warrantless wiretapping. Apropos the Jane Harman controversy, I asked the members of Congress: “How many of you are confident that your phone calls are NOT being wiretapped?”
I mentioned a comment by congressional leader Hale Boggs in 1971 on the effect of congressional “fear†of the FBI – how the FBI’s boundless surveillance undermined congressional oversight of the FBI in the 1960s and early 1970s. I asked whether the same thing could be happening now regarding congressional oversight of the various law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
The luncheon was off-the-record, so, unfortunately, I cannot disclose the responses to my questions. (Disclosing one’s own comments or questions is not a breach of confidentiality).
Lew Rockwell interviews Scott Horton
Er, me. I suppose I should have blogged this earlier, but Lew Rockwell interviewed me last week for his great podcast show (which I never miss) for those who are interested.
Hastert goes (back) to work for Turkey
Philip Giraldi has a new “Deep Background” just out for the American Conservative magazine about former House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s new job lobbying for Turkey – from which he has been credibly accused in the past of accepting cash bribes while still in the congress.