Letters From ‘The Front’

Foreign Policy, Iraq, Just War, War

Sifting through IlanaMercer.com’s archives, I found some of the many missives WorldNetDaily’s intrepid editors fielded about my coverage of the invasion of Iraq. Some of the comments were even more cutting than the hereunder. The letter’s date suggests Mr. Carr was piqued over the following pieces (among others): In bed With the Military, ‘Just War’ for Dummies, Tuned-Out, Turned-On and Hot for War, U.S.: Global Governor? Betraying Brave Boys, etc. To their great credit, most of the readers I hear from these days no longer support the war. —ILANA

From: Tim Carr
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2003
To: David Kupelian
Cc: jfarah@worldnetdaily.com
Subject: Awful Ilana

Guys, I am about to boycott your splendid web site.

I am getting sick and tired of Ilana Mercer bashing the United States of America. If she (and anyone else for that matter) really feels that the current form of government is as corrupt and evil as she suggests it is, then she has but one of two choices: run away and hide, because a government that is as corrupt as she suggests cannot be stopped nor can it be trusted and is capable of any level of malevolence; or two, get a gun, march to DC and start an armed revolution, because her vote is worthless, democracy is a sham and a vote cannot and will not fix it.

As for me and my house, I am getting tired of seeing her anti-American sentiments being passed off as Old Right, legitimate conservatism. More to the point, I am getting tired of seeing her vitriol being bandied about on World Net Daily. Her views are so … out of touch with other contributors on your web site that she might as well just come right out and say that she wishes the US would lose the war in Iraq (Oh yes, I know, she supports our troops, she just does not support the USE of force in this war. That sound you hear is me yawning, and if my yawn were any bigger we would need to map it out and give it a name. Please, spare me that double speak.)…

Ilana and I have exchanged quite a few e-mails. Some of them were heated. They never really rose above the level of political debate. Strong views were expressed on both sides. I even called her a nut case and loopy in one instance. So, I came away from the exchange frustrated. I was frustrated, as I often am, because something was gnawing at me, and I could not pinpoint what it was. So, as I lay in bed thinking to myself, I had some revelations. Here is what I learned.

I love reading Ilana’s stuff. I always have, that is, until the last 4 months. Lately, some of the foundational underpinnings of her beliefs have come to the forefront and I have found myself increasingly offended by her comments and more and more critical of her work. What is interesting to me is that I tricked myself into thinking that I disagreed with her politics, and I was roped into this line of reasoning by way of Ilana’s rhetoric. Make no mistake, Ilana is brilliant. But what I failed to see is that Ilana is suffering from political tunnel vision. By this I mean that for all of Ilana’s erudite, political exegesis, her rhetoric never rises above the level of political debate [natural rights and Just War Theory, my purview, fall within the philosophical realm, surely.—ILANA]

Because of Ilana’s political tunnel vision, she is missing the most crucial lesson of Iraq. What is happening in Iraq has nothing to do with politics. This war is unlike any other, accept for maybe WWII, but even WWII takes a back seat to Iraq in terms of what is at stake here. This war is about nothing less than the survival of humanity. What we are talking about is a struggle of cosmic proportions between Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, God and Satan, Man and demon. This struggle transcends the petty balance of control in the Senate and House. It transcends the debate of who is a true conservative, neo or paleo. This cosmic struggle relegates the notions of global expansion and democracy vs. communism to the level of petty strife

Do you subscribe to her isolationist views? If so, please let me know and I will make sure to avoid WND from this point forward. [“Isolationism” in this context is used to discredit individuals who do not support recreational, unprovoked wars—ILANA]

Thanks
—Tim Carr

Reality on the Palestinian Ground

Islam, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Having superimposed their phantasmagoric narrative about Iraq on the world, Bush and Rice have set about validating the Palestinian parallel universe. They are now forcing Israel to let Hamas, whose plank includes the destruction of Israel, to campaign openly in East Jerusalem. Bush thinks he can change reality by announcing that forthwith, Hamas is just another party in the smorgasbord of Palestinian ‘democracy.’

Semantics, however, don’t alter facts. No amount of wanking with words is going to change that Palestinians, unlike their Israeli neighbors, don’t live under the rule of enlightened Western law, don’t have a free and ferociously critical media or liberal courts, and are more likely to approve when their coreligionists strap on belts of nails and dynamite and blow up innocents…

The excerpt is from “Reality on the Palestinian Ground.” Feel free to comment.

Uncommon Daydreams (Or Lying Left-Liberals)

Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim

In his column, “Axis of Fanatics—Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad,” Norman Solomon of Common Dreams surmises that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Bibi Netanyahu are cut from the same cloth because:
The Iranian president 1) threatened to destroy Israel and then 2) accelerated Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
The Israeli politician, in turn, promised to defend Israel against Ahmadinejad’s final solution.
Norman is without Solomonic wisdom; he can’t even compare like with like.
We all agree that Cold-War deterrence is best. But what if one’s enemy is undeterred?
Solomon’s solution is as dumb as Wikipedia’s. The wickedly stupid online encyclopedia had expressed confidence in the Islamic Republic’s “constitutional” separation of powers: Ahmadinejad hasn’t the authority to declare war on Israel—only Iran’s Supreme Leader has, it has suggested.
Likewise, Solomon thanks his lucky stars that Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has shifted power from Mad Mahmoud (Ahmadinejad) to the governmental Expediency Council headed by “the shady,” yet “moderate, magnate” Hashemi Rafsanjani.
As I divulged in Satan’s Little Helpers, Ahmadinejad is not the first Iranian ruler to promise atomic retribution against Israel; Hashemi Rafsanjani is. That’s right, Mr. Solomon’s “moderate magnate” said the following:

“If one day … the world of Islam is mutually equipped with the kind of weapons Israel presently possesses, the world’s arrogant strategy will then come to a dead end, because the use of an atomic bomb on Israel won’t leave anything; however in the world of Islam [use of a bomb] will just cause harm, and this scenario is not far fetched.”

Lay Off Pat Robertson

Christian Right, Israel

Pat Robertson, “a life long supporter of Israel,” is being attacked for saying that God “has enmity against those who divide [His] land,’ suggesting He does not look kindly on Sharon. But as Ariel Sharon lies gravely ill , felled by a massive stroke, the seething cesspool known as the Palestinian Street has been rejoicing. Smiling children hold up placards with the words, “Sharon Die.” (Look at them; aren’t they precious?)

The Palestinians’ official leadership has been slightly more somber; the Arab world, after all, is and has always been more radical and militant than its leaders. As Arab-American scholar Fouad Ajami once noted, “It is a peculiarity of the Arab political order that many of the rulers and the dynasties are more moderate than the populace.” Hamas, the Palestinians’ unofficial representative—it is expected to win the upcoming democratic parliamentary elections—has been leading these terrifying tykes in celebration.

Every bit as bent and brutal are the offerings on assorted hard-Left websites. The Counterpunch cranks, for example, set a similar tone with articles entitled: “Stroke of Luck? Political Hemorrhage in Israel.” Written by an Arab, the piece was no match in its pixelated glee for “Sharon Meets His Maker,” by an expatriate Israeli.

Far and away the most hateful anti-Israel-cum-anti-Semitic tracts are penned by Jews. For instance, the revisionist, pseudo-scholarly campaign to delegitimize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state is the handiwork of Jews: “the New Historians.”

I have no doubt that were he alive today, Karl Marx would be a “New Historian.” Marx was one of the most notorious anti-Jewish thinkers. “Money is the jealous God of Israel, besides which no god may exist,” he wrote. In A History of the Jews, Paul Johnson presents an overview of Marx’s prolific anti-Semitism. Johnson has concluded that the archetype Jew in Marx’s thinking was replaced by the archetype capitalist.

Another marginal expatriate Israeli accused Bibi Netanyahu of dancing on Sharon’s grave. No links or quotes were offered in support of this inflammatory assertion. The commentator simply superimposed his twisted tantrum on innocent position statements made by the Netanyahu camp. The golem in question garnished his anti-Sharon prolixity with left-liberal root-causes rot: he contends a lone Jew—Rabin’s murderer—is to blame for the anarcho-terrorist society under construction, adjacent to Israel.

Sharon is old, overweight, and overburdened. I happen to think those realities caught up with him! Robertson disagrees. Like them or not, his theological beliefs include the idea that one will reap God’s wrath if one defies His wishes, as Robertson construes them. Big deal! Those who’ve been protesting Robertson with the greatest indignity are also the squawkers who were mum when Iran’s Majnun-in-Chief vowed to annihilate Israel. Let a Muslim cleric with a bucket of lopped off clitorises in the shed (I didn’t say that; Kathy Griffin did) make some or other ridiculous statement and it’s face to Mecca and keister up in the air for these bootlickers.

Robertson may be tactless, but his attackers are hypocrites. If they care so much about Sharon, let them turn the arrows in their quiver on the Palestinian Street, or on the hard-Left, or on other chronic loathers of Israel—and of civilization and liberty.