Whenever a really big issue consumes Washington … Syria is such an issue … a certain number of people seem to succumb to the need to say something really stupid. In their desperation to be involved, to be relevant, they melt down.
Professor Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School gave an interview to an online organization called Newsmax on September 9, 2013. The subject was the legality of initiating military strikes on a foreign country without Congressional approval. After some unremarkable back and forth on this subject, Professor Dershowitz departed from the topic and launched into a bizarre and unprovoked attack on Europe.
“It would be easier to get the Europeans to want to attack Israel than it would be to get them to attack Syria. They care more about Israel building a settlement somewhere than they do about hundreds of thousands of Arabs killing each other.”
Alan, baby. Tell us what you really think. Are you sure you don't have some unresolved anger issues?
Allow me to refresh your recollection on the sacrifices made by soldiers of European countries assisting the United States in the two wars against Iraq and the one in Afghanistan. In Iraq I, the UK and France suffered fatalities. In Iraq II, a total of 12 European countries suffered fatalities assisting us. In Afghanistan, 23 European countries suffered fatalities fighting alongside the United States.
These wars were fought with the intention of protecting the US, Europe, and Israel from terrorists and threatening regimes. Israel did not assist or participate in any of them.
I can give you my personal assurance that an attack on Israel from Europe is not imminent. Stay cool and keep in touch.
Norman Podhoretz has big time neocon credentials. From 1960-1995, he served as the editor of Commentary Magazine, a publication founded in 1945 by the American Jewish Committee.
He and his former magazine have virtually nothing good to say about Barack Obama or, for that matter, anybody who isn't hell-bent to bomb Iran. Mr. Podhoretz has been pushing that little item since 2007, when he wrote a lengthy piece in Commentary.
In a September 8, 2013 Wall Street Journal piece entitled, “Obama's Successful Foreign Failure,” Podhoretz opens with the tried and true right wing poll-tested words and phrases to describe Obama. “Feckless … plays golf … amateurish … in over his head.” Next comes a recitation of the ghosts of the past … Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Saul Alinsky.
Having laid out the Frank Luntz poll-tested adjectives and the Sarah Palin guilt by association names, Mr. Podhoretz moves in for the master stroke.
Obama is a wolf in sheep's clothing. His actions are pursuant to a secret strategy. He's trying to turn the US into that most dreadful of all places … Europe!
Mr. Podhoretz, you know better than that. Just because Alan Dershowitz says Europe is bad, doesn't mean it's so.
Ask Richard Perle. He made enough money bashing France, he bought a house there. Not far from Marseilles. Beautiful area. Check it out.
Bill O'Reilly has an 8pm show on Fox five nights a week. Mr. O'Reilly is a big man … about 6'4''. He likes to call people out. People who don't meet his standards of behavior are “cowards” or “weasels.” When he has guests on, he gets in their face and talks over them, especially if they're smaller, like 5'7'' Paul Krugman, who cleaned his clock anyway.
What most people don't know is that O'Reilly does not have the courage to do a live show. He tapes his show between 5-7pm so his temper tantrums can be cleaned up. Occasionally, when you have a breaking news story, O'Reilly has to go live, and it's rarely pretty. For a sampling, Google “Bill O'Reilly meltdowns.” Note that when he gets really angry, he shouts, gets red in the face, and his nostrils flare — literally. It's hilarious.
Monday, when the Putin story first broke and it looked like Syria might agree to international supervision of its chemical weapons, O'Reilly was beside himself. Putin was going to deny O'Reilly and his viewers what they wanted most … Obama's defeat in Congress and diminishment on the world stage.
The prize of Obama's humiliation was being taken away from him, and he just couldn't stand it. Putin, he sputtered, was a “baby killer.” Really, Bill … I'm not sure you laid a proper foundation for that little zinger.
After 10 minutes of hyperventilating outburst, Bad Bill's alter ego, Good Bill emerged to observe that if something could be worked out between Putin and Assad, “All this might turn out to be a good thing for the USA.”
Good Bill was done for the night. Bad Bill went on to observe that, “It's worth Obama being defeated and humiliated rather than right the wrong committed by Assad.”
Tuesday night, the night of Obama's speech, O'Reilly moderated a pre-speech session on Fox. Nice and mellow … compliant guests … no surprises … no problem.
Then he went home. Bill doesn't have the courage to take part in a give-and-take on a breaking story like a speech that he's hearing for the first time without a taping session to clean up his boorishness and mistakes.
Poor baby.
I will post again on Wednesday, October 2, 2013 (or before, if the news flow dictates) and, for the time being, I will post on the first Wednesday of each month.
Comments are welcome at tomc[at]wednesdayswars[dot]com. Name and town if you wish to opine. Comments will be addressed in subsequent posts.