Interesting… VDH, last night, on The Corner:
The last time I had a run-in with the frenetic Andrew Sullivan was in front of an audience at Columbia University. There while loudly renouncing his former support for invading Iraq, he accused me of supporting government-sponsored torture — only later to concede that in fact, as I told him at the time, I had written a column [1] specifically objecting to its use as others acknowledged [2]. But that apparently has become Sullivan’s modus operandi — in frenzied fashion to toss out slurs and then to grow silent when they are refuted.
Hanson goes on to express other points as regards Sullivan. But it was this first paragraph which caught my attention.
First, I should and fairness point out, that I have made the point in the past and continue to make it now, the torture is not always wrong. That having been said, the reaction of Sullivan, to having his arguments dismembered was the thrust of the paragraph for me. I have become convinced that there is a pattern here which needs not be ignored.
I made a similar comment as regards Scott Erb, another somewhat mentally disconnected Liberal, here [3] at the beginning of this month…
It’s a typical ploy of Erb and his ilk, once cornered on a factual point to claim “it doesn’t matter. ” Aesop and his fable of the sour grapes seems to roar to mind here.
The similarity of response is striking, to say the very least. Sullivan, usually very vocal indeed, suddenly becomes impassive when presented with factual points defeating his argument. So too, Scott Erb. Two people reacting in this fashion I’ve given you fair enough odds against. But more than that?
Well, we see the situation developing in Iraq, that would to anyone with an open mind on the matter be considered a massive victory for these United States and the world. Of course, the left has been telling us about how the whole thing is a massive defeat. When faced with unquestionable evidence that militarily we were not in defeat, the democrats spent a good deal of their time creating talking points to meet with this new reality. Their consensus; military victory doesn’t matter.
A more cynical individual would perhaps have noticed a trend developing.
Think; We were told less than a week ago that what really mattered was a political solution. Of course, the people making that statement ignored the idea that a political solution was only possible once the military victory been achieved . As I remarked last evening, that military victory having been achieved, (and that being acknowledged by the Democrats, by saying it doesn’t matter) …it now appears that a political solution is in the offing. [4]
Their response to this, as before, will doubtless be that this new victory doesn’t matter, either. Of course, they’ll have to put together a conference call to figure out how not to say “we were wrong” and instead say “it doesn’t matter”.
You know, eventually, with enough exposure to this kind of attitude, and being forced to actually think about what the left has been doing to us for years, now, the American people… at least, those capable of actual thought, are going to conclude that the left itself really doesn’t matter.
As an example, have a look at what Hanson wrote:
“At the same time, the Arab world is beginning to see elections take hold in the Islamic world—in Afghanistan, the West Bank, and now Iraq. And that fact will eventually be fatal for Al Qaeda and Baathists alike. We cannot appreciate these positive symptoms in our despair over the post-invasion period.”
I think the general decline in support for bin Laden and suicide bombing in the Middle East, and changes from Lebanon to Libya support that evolution, and yes, that we can’t appreciate that in our present despair.
… the despair, of course, from the “it doesn’t matter” crowd… but the news from last evening, puts a wrench into all of that. Hanson, obviously wrote this prior to the news last night.
If I read the signs aright, and I think I do, it would appear that what Hanson predicted some time ago , (and the president some time before that) has come to pass. If that is indeed the case, and the naysayers inhabiting the democratic party were in fact as wrong as I have always said they were, attitudes in the American electorate (and in the world as a whole) are about to change rather dramatically.
Personally, I’m looking forward to a landslide of Reaganesque proportions.