Politics - How To Disembowel A Hypocrite

Verbally, of course. If you haven't seen/heard David Shuster's interview of Fouad Ajami on Hardball, rush over to Crooks and Liars forthwith. When Ajami's remarks regarding Scooter Libby ("fallen soldier?" Rising draft-dodger is more like it) were published, I had another aneurysm-inducing paroxysm of rage, shock, horror, and disgust. Where do these babbling mouthpieces come from? How can anyone say what this professional sycophant - who, incidentally, teaches at Johns Hopkins, reducing my respect for that heretofore venerated institution - said about Libby? Libby lied under oath. He swore by whatever he holds sacred to tell the truth, and then he fucking lied! And by that immoral act, he prevented many important truths from seeing the light of day. He subverted truth, justice, the law, and democracy. Is that an act equivalent to soldiery? I don't like war and I don't much like the military as an institution, while recognizing nonetheless that it is an unavoidable evil in an overcrowded world where we must compete for limited resources. But to become a soldier, one must swear allegiance to principles that require one to lay down one's life and limb for another. The crux of the matter is, of course, how one defines the "other."

Libby "laid down" not his life nor his limb, but merely the possibility of losing, temporarily, his freedom. And he did so for no motive, no dedication to an ideal greater than himself, no overarching morality or humanity, no noble cause. He did it because his boss promised him there would be no consequences. His letter to Judith Miller of the New York Times was creepy and vaguely threatening, I thought:

"... the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work—and life."

It sounded to me as if he was warning her against telling all she knew. In other words, like witness-tampering. Hard to prove, no doubt. And this lying creep is likened by Ajami to a soldier! I am pleased to say that David Shuster verbally disemboweled him, with Paul Rieckhoff of Iraq and Afghan Veterans Against War adding the flambe effect at the end. Aiyah!

Stumble It!