Andrew Sullivan’s Underbelly — It Isn’t Pretty

Here‘s Andy Sullivan, the man who once denounced opponents of Bush’s War as a “fifth column,” continuing his strange metamorphosis:

Here’s a challenging essay by Michael Vlahos in the American Conservative, a magazine that for all its troubling underbelly, is taking intellectual risks not seen in more established venues like the Weekly Standard or National Review.

Ah yes, that “troubling underbelly” — he means this, and, of course, this. Oh, go f*ck yourself, Andy — that is, if you can find anyone to do that dirty job. And please spare us the condescending “praise” — your brand of “skeptical” conservatism is a euphemism for opportunism of the rankest sort. Speaking of underbellies, take a gander at Sully’s more than ample example:

The sophisticated form of anthrax delivered to Tom Daschle’s office forces us to ask a simple question. What are these people trying to do? I think they’re testing the waters. They want to know how we will respond to what is still a minor biological threat, as a softener to a major biological threat in the coming weeks. They must be encouraged by the panic-mongering of the tabloids, Hollywood and hoaxsters. They must also be encouraged by the fact that some elements in the administration already seem to be saying we need to keep our coalition together rather than destroy the many-headed enemy. So the terrorists are pondering their next move. The chilling aspect of the news in the New York Times today is that the terrorists clearly have access to the kind of anthrax that could be used against large numbers of civilians. My hopes yesterday that this was a minor attack seem absurdly naïve in retrospect. So they are warning us and testing us. At this point, it seems to me that a refusal to extend the war to Iraq is not even an option. We have to extend it to Iraq. It is by far the most likely source of this weapon; it is clearly willing to use such weapons in the future; and no war against terrorism of this kind can be won without dealing decisively with the Iraqi threat. We no longer have any choice in the matter. Slowly, incrementally, a Rubicon has been crossed. The terrorists have launched a biological weapon against the United States. They have therefore made biological warfare thinkable and thus repeatable. We once had a doctrine that such a Rubicon would be answered with a nuclear response. We backed down on that threat in the Gulf War but Saddam didn’t dare use biological weapons then. Someone has dared to use them now. Our response must be as grave as this new threat.

Any truly skeptical person, conservative, liberal, or whatever, would have to first be skeptical of Andy himself, whose positions change with the public mood and who still hasn’t disavowed the above-cited grotesque call to use nuclear weapons against Iraq.

Andy needs to be reminded of what a fool he is: go and remind him of his bloodthirsty cry of “nuke Iraq!”, and tell him Antiwar.com sent you: andrew@theatlantic.com

Christopher Ketcham

Cheering Movers and Art Student Spies: What Did Israel Know in Advance of the 9/11 Attacks?

Christopher Ketcham discusses his article “Cheering Movers and Art Student Spies: What Did Israel Know in Advance of the 9/11 Attacks,” for CounterPunch: How much did the Israeli spies who were following the 9/11 hijackers know before the attack and how much did the U.S. government know?

MP3 here. (53:05)

Christopher Ketcham, a freelance reporter based in Moab, Utah, writes for Harper’s, Mother Jones, GQ, Salon and many other venues.

Mark Boal

The Real Cost of War: The pain of shell shock and the US government’s war against its soldiers

Journalist Mark Boal talks about his article for Playboy, “The Real Cost of War,” about the suffering of American troops from “Post-traumatic Stress Disorder” and the government’s attempt to deny their pain to maintain the media narrative about how great wars is.

MP3 here. (31:11)

David Barsamian

Targeting Iran: Just got back, they don’t want war

David Barsamian of AlternativeRadio.org talks about his recent trip to Iran and his forthcoming book Targeting Iran.

David Barsamian is founder and director of Alternative Radio, the independent award-winning weekly series based in Boulder, Colorado. He is a radio producer, journalist, author and lecturer. He has been working in radio since 1978. His interviews and articles appear regularly in The Progressive and Z Magazine.

His latest books are Imperial Ambitions with Noam Chomsky and Speaking of Empire & Resistance with Tariq Ali and Original Zinn with Howard Zinn. His earlier books include Propaganda and the Public Mind: Conversations with Noam Chomsky; Eqbal Ahmad: Confronting Empire and The Decline and Fall of Public Broadcasting.

The Institute for Alternative Journalism named him one of its “Top Ten Media Heroes.” Barsamian lectures on U.S. foreign policy, the media, propaganda, and corporate power in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, India and Europe. He is the winner of the ACLU’s Upton Sinclair Award for independent journalism, the 2006 Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Award and the Cultural Freedom Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation.

MP3 here. (37:04)

Gareth Porter

Burnt Offering: In 2003 Iran tried to make peace, US rebuked neutral messenger.

Historian Gareth Porter explains the Iranians’ cooperation with the United States after 9/11 and their attempt to make peace in 2003, which included putting Iran’s nuclear program, support for Hamas and Hezbollah and recognition of Israel on the table for negotiation, and how the Bush administration – including Rice and Rove – rebuffed it.

MP3 here.

Gareth Porter, a historian and journalist, writes regularly on U.S. policy in Iran and Iraq for Inter Press Service. His most recent book is Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam.

Michael Schwartz

Baghdad Surges into Hell: First Results from the President’s Offensive.

Michael Schwartz discusses his article “Baghdad Surges into Hell: First Results from the President’s Offensive,” the Sadrists’ tactic of withdrawing for the time being, the administrations’ goals for future control Iraqi resources.

MP3 here.

Michael Schwartz, Professor of Sociology and Faculty Director of the Undergraduate College of Global Studies at Stony Brook University, has written extensively on popular protest and insurgency as well as on American business and government dynamics. His books include Radical Protest and Social Structure, and Social Policy and the Conservative Agenda (edited with Clarence Lo). His work on Iraq has appeared on numerous Internet sites including Tomdispatch.com, Asia Times, Mother Jones, and ZNet; and in print in Contexts, Against the Current, and Z Magazine.