Ignorance Is Strength  

Crooked Timber has put up a John Podhoertz rant on our glorious triumph in Iraq for the natives to deliver a thrashing to.

I must confess to being puzzled by the amazing spread of the idea that the Bush Doctrine has indeed failed the test of Iraq. After all, Iraq has been liberated from one of the worst tyrants in the Middle East; three elections have been held; a decent constitution has been written; a government is in place; and previously unimaginable liberties are being enjoyed. By what bizarre calculus does all this add up to failure? And by what even stranger logic is failure to be read into the fact that the forces opposed to democratization are fighting back with all their might?

Surely what makes more sense is the opposite interpretation of the terrible violence being perpetrated by the terrorists of the so-called “insurgency”: that it is in itself a tribute to the enormous strides that have been made in democratizing the country. If this murderous collection of diehard Sunni Baathists and vengeful Shiite militias, together with their allies inside the government, agreed that democratization had already failed, would they be waging so desperate a campaign to defeat it? And if democratization in Iraq posed no threat to the other despotisms in the region, would those regimes be sending jihadists and material support to the “insurgency” there?

Reader Jeffrey Kramer detects a bolshevik note in the Pod's ravings.

I must confess to being puzzled by the amazing spread of the idea that Communism has indeed failed the test in the U.S.S.R. After all, Russia has been liberated from one of the worst tyrants in Europe; dozens of elections have been held, with the government winning resounding mandates each time; the constitution is a thing of beauty; and previously unimaginable rights and privileges are being enjoyed by the workers. By what bizarre calculus does all this add up to failure? And by what even stranger logic is failure to be read into the fact that the forces opposed to socialism are fighting back with all their might?

While Andrew Edwards ponders what the Podosaurus would make of Somalia's experiment in building a free market economy without any state intrusion.

I must confess to being puzzled by the amazing spread of the idea that Anarchism has indeed failed the test in the Somalia. After all, Somalis have been liberated from one of the worst tyrants in Africa and previously unimaginable privileges and freedoms are being enjoyed by those who now live unconstrained by the limits of a state. Why would people think simply that the massive violence is evidence of failure? Is not a better interpretation that the bitter struggles of warlords are caused by their fear of the success of Anarchism? Isn’t their attempt to seize power and form a state evidence that they are afraid of how successful the lack of a state has been?

Elsewhere in the mists of neoconservatism, another blundering fool has managed to be proved wrong in a very short space of time (thats the problem with trying to predict the near future, especially when you are forecasting apocalypse), with Iran failing to launch its (mythical) nuclear weapons at the (far from defenceless when it comes to nuclear weapons) Israelis. To be fair, they still have about 10 hours or so to go though, so he may yet be proved right.

It seems that Iran is going to attack Israel today, 22 August, with nuclear weapons, and initiate World War III, as famous Islamic scholar Bernard Lewis explains in his recent Wall Street Journal editorial.

"...confrontation seems to be looming between a nuclear-armed Iran and its favorite enemies, named by the late Ayatollah Khomeini as the Great Satan and the Little Satan, i.e., the United States and Israel," the professor says.
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"A direct attack on the US, though possible, is less likely in the immediate future. Israel is a nearer and easier target, and [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad has given indication of thinking along these lines."

Naturally, this would result in a catastrophic attack on Iran. As for why the Iranians might wish to commit genosuicide, Lewis explains that they're just funny that way: "The threat of direct retaliation on Iran is...weakened by the suicide or martyrdom complex that plagues parts of the Islamic world today, without parallel in other religions, or for that matter in the Islamic past."

Besides, it's been ordained by scripture. "In Islam, as in Judaism and Christianity, there are certain beliefs concerning the cosmic struggle at the end of time - Gog and Magog, anti-Christ, Armageddon - and for Shiite Muslims, the long awaited return of the Hidden Imam, ending in the final victory of the forces of good over evil, however these may be defined. Mr Ahmadinejad and his followers clearly believe that this time is now, and that the terminal struggle has already begun and is indeed well advanced."

The professor has read between the lines, and discovered the optimum date for the end of human civilization. "This year, August 22 corresponds, in the Islamic calendar, to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427. This, by tradition, is the night when many Muslims commemorate the night flight of the prophet Muhammad on the winged horse Buraq, first to 'the farthest mosque,' usually identified with Jerusalem, and then to heaven and back (c.f., Koran XVII.1). This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel, and, if necessary, of the world."

On the bright side, there's no better time for saying goodbye to the world than just as the mainstream press is gearing up to inundate us with speculation regarding the death of JonBenet Ramsey, from broadcast locations in Boulder, Colorado. That we will be spared Greta Van Susteren's daily musings about what might or might not have happened, surely, must prove the existence of a loving and merciful God.

And so we prepare to meet Him with joy and gratitude.

Even though though the JonBenet case is simply a horrible crime perpetrated years ago in a foreign country, our media can't seem to find anything better to report on either ("news" having changed meaning over the last decade or so), so I've had to add another topic to the list of things I ignore.

The supposed criminal who has sparked this media circus (well - he certainly seems to be a freak and one guilty of numerous other crimes) doesn't seem particularly likely to actually be guilty - even the tabloid papers here soon followed the tinfoil world's immediate reaction (Xymphora called bullshit within hours of the first report). RI has managed to weave the ugly story into the evolving web of unpleasantness they have been constructing.