‘I Just Thought the Quote Was Interesting’

Jonah Goldberg, whose still unreleased masterpiece Liberal Fascism now has its least moronic working subtitle yet, has posted what is already being hailed as the “Best. Update. Ever.” Oh my, how will Ron Paul’s acolytes ever respond to Evelyn Waugh’s defense of (wait for it, wait for it) fascism?

Don’t Blame Us, All Arabs Are Liars

National Review‘s Kathryn Jean Lopez explains Thomas Smith’s false reporting from Lebanon:

That’s why I wrote, in my first editor’s note on the subject, that we “should have provided readers with more context and caveats” – the context that Smith was operating in an uncertain environment where he couldn’t always be sure of what he was witnessing, and the caveats that he filled in the gaps by talking to sources within the Cedar Revolution movement and the Lebanese national-security apparatus, whose claims obviously should have been been treated with the same degree of skepticism as those of anyone with an agenda to advance.

As one of our sources put it: “The Arab tendency to lie and exaggerate about enemies is alive and well among pro-American Lebanese Christians as much as it is with the likes of Hamas.”

One question: will we be allowed to quote this back to the neocons the next time they cite their buddies in Beirut regarding Syrian perfidy, or will they call us racists?

Jim Powell

US Entry in WWI Caused WWII

[audio:http://wiredispatch.com/scott/07_11_29_powell.mp3]

Jim Powell, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and author of Wilson’s War: How Woodrow Wilson’s Great Blunder Led to Hitler, Lenin, Stalin and World War II, explains that it was American intervention, not a lack thereof, that created the circumstances which led to the Second World War and the unbroken chain of U.S. intervention overseas from Woodrow Wilson’s breaking of the stalemate of 1917.

MP3 here. (39:20)

Jim Powell, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, is an expert in the history of liberty. He has lectured in England, Germany, Japan, Argentina and Brazil as well as at Harvard, Stanford and other universities across the United States. He has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Esquire, Audacity/American Heritage and other publications.

He is the author of several books, including The Triumph of Liberty, A 2,000 Year History Told Through The Lives Of Freedom’s Greatest Champions (Free Press, 2000), FDR’s Folly, How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression (2003), Wilson’s War, How Woodrow Wilson’s Great Blunder Led To Hitler, Lenin, Stalin And World War II (2005) and Bully Boy, The Truth About Theodore Roosevelt’s Legacy (2006).

Barbara Slavin

Bush’s Gifts to Iran’s Neocons

[audio:http://wiredispatch.com/charles/aw2007-11-28barbaraslavin.mp3]

Senior diplomatic reporter for USA Today Barbara Slavin, author of Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S., and the Twisted Path to Confrontation, discusses the likelihood of war with Iran, their exclusion from the Annapolis conference, and how the U.S. has helped the “neoconservative” hardliners in Iran by spurning every peace offer of the Iranian moderates.

MP3 here. (18:20)

Barbara Slavin is the senior diplomatic reporter for USA Today since 1996, with the responsibility for analyzing foreign news and U.S. foreign policy. Sha has covered such key issues as the U.S.-led war on terrorism, policy toward “rogue” states, the reform movement in Iran and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Sha has also accompanied two Secretaries of State on their official travels and reported from Libya, Israel, Egypt, North Korea, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Syria.