Antiwar.com Blog

Here’s an antidote to the putrid stench emanating from Horowitzian insanity, for everyone who followed Matt’s link….

Chris Albritton: "Getty photographer Chris Hondros,
Marla Ruzicka and me in Baghdad last summer.”

Thanks, Chris. 

The organization Reporters Without Borders reports on Press Freedom Day that in Latin America, The Island and the Bolivarian Republic lead the rest of the hemisphere — in the censorship of journalists. In anti-imperialist, pro-classic car Cuba alone 22 were (and continue to be) held behind bars. In the progressive hero Hugo Chávez’s private revolutionary playground of Venezuela, the state has closed numerous publications and shut down many TV stations for refusing to march to Chávez’s tune.

It seems the more the rest of the Americas continue their drift to the left, the less chance there is anyone else will hear about it.

¡Viva la Revolución!

Ahmad Chalabi, the newly ordained Minister of Iraqi Oil, takes time out of his busy pandering and grifting schedule to whine about an article written in last August’s Columbia Journalism Review.  Apparently being associated with "Curveball" is too much, even for a Hero in Error.

The revolting David Horowitz, fresh off his buddy Debbie Schlussel’s attack on murdered humanitarian worker Marla Ruzicka, hocks up some more phlegm for the grave desecration. He tries to throw in a few kind words here and there – even FrontPageMag readers were apparently horrified by Schlussel’s performance – but he can’t quite resist essentially calling Ruzicka a dumb blonde.

You could pay half of Antiwar.com’s quarterly needs. The going price of a six-mile ride from central Baghdad to Baghdad International Airport: $35,000. That’s up from six grand in November.

Uh, just to be clear, cab fare is NOT included in this wager.

“We weren’t on the wrong side. We were the wrong side.” – Daniel Ellsberg

With the 30th anniversary of the end of the US attack on Vietnam, the event which is usually referred to as the “defense of South Vietnam” or the Vietnam War in mind, I was able to see the notorious documentary Hearts and Minds, by Peter Davis, which won the 1974 Academy Award for Best Documentary, and was promptly denounced by Frank Sinatra (who presented the next award).
The film is far from perfect. It is too heavy-handed; it tells us how to interpret many of the things it simply needs to show us. There’s also a distracting attempt to explain American cultural militarism by drawing a parallel with American Football, which strikes me as too easy. The movie doesn’t need to try to supply easy answers to difficult questions.
The largest portion of the film features interviews with Americans involved in the war from two perspectives; Ex-soldiers explaining their role, and ex-bigshots explaining theirs. One such soldier, a flag-waving ex-POW nitwit named George Coker, explains that Vietnam would be a great place if not for the “backwards” and “primitive” natives. Then there’s Gen. William C. Westmoreland, who provides an explanation for why the US government felt it was acceptable to murder 3.4 million Vietnamese, “The Oriental doesn’t put the same high price on life as does the Westerner. Life is cheap in the Orient.”. Davis managed to secure an interview with the quintessential Cold Warrior – Walt Rostow, whose belief at that point that the attack was “worth it” is recorded for posterity. Rostow’s combative attitude and myopic view of the situation is quease-inducing, but its also somewhat amusing to see him ranting and raving about his own wrong-headedness. Continue reading “Hearts and Minds”