September 16, 2003

A job well done

Michael J Totten fisks Ted Rall.

Fisking can be fun but in this instance it is far from being a frivolous activity.

Rall has, in my opinion, crossed the line that separates dissent from incitement. In his apparent approval of the murder of Iraqis working with American forces to restore civil society in that country, he makes it clear where his sympathies lie.
On July 5 a bomb killed seven recruits for a U.S.-trained Iraqi police force in Ramadi. U.S. occupation administrator Paul Bremer deplored the murder of "innocent Iraqis." Cops who work for a foreign army of occupation are not innocent. They are collaborators. Traitors. They had it coming.
The people responsible for the murder of those seven Iraqi policemen would no doubt take comfort from Rall’s words.

I know people will tell me that this is neither treason nor treachery, just a vigorous contribution to the debate. Unfortunately, reading Rall’s words I find myself, at least momentarily, incapable of such fine distinctions.