Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys!?

John Litchfield writes in The Independent (linked from kasia in a nutshell):

A grateful transatlantic reader writes: You limey saddo. Who gives a s*** about your dreary little island and what you hypocrites think... Such is, broadly, the tone of several e-messages that I received from the United States after I defended France's right to have its own opinion on Iraq. [...] the nastiest blow of all was landed by the far- right American propagandist who wrote a column that dismissed the French as cheese-eating surrender monkeys. [...]

If we are being offered a choice between a cheese-eating civilisation and a peanut-butter-eating civilisation, I am with the cheese-eaters. Post-September 11, US politics -- and even US journalism -- seems to be going the way of peanut butter. There is room for endless freedom of choice between labels. The contents of the ideas are not allowed to vary. [Our Man in Paris]

This kind of argument, (proclaiming the French to be cheese-eating surrender monkeys or at the helm of the Axis of Weasels) is downright comical and suggests the amount of credibility we should grant to the name callers.

And this behavior is by no means limited to the right but is common on the both sides, witness for instance the anti-war protesters carrying posters of Saddam -- what he's our hero, now!?

Gosh. Why don't I want to ally myself with either side!?

12:07:42 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []  

White House Factions

It's just too easy for me to write off pronouncements that come out of the White House, so easy in fact that I am likely (indeed certain) to misunderstand that which I should not. In an article in The American Prospect Online (linked by Josh Marshall), John Judis illuminates some of the forces at work at the White House:

Judis: Three factions in the administration have been involved in formulating the Iraq policy: The first and most important has consisted of Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. They are Republican unilateralists who disdain international organizations and have been reluctant to intervene overseas except when they saw America's interests clearly at stake. The second faction is led by Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and CIA Director George Tenet. They adhere to the classic blend of realism and internationalism that had characterized the Bush Senior and Clinton administrations. And the third faction has been the neoconservatives, led by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. [Why Iraq?, The American Prospect vol. 14 no. 3, March 1, 2003] (emphasis added by me for clarity)

It's worthwhile reading. At least it makes me feel like an informed whiner.

9:51:06 AM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []