Booman Tribune

Morally Decrepit Michael Goldfarb

by BooMan
Sat May 10th, 2008 at 10:03:24 AM EST

Can you tell me what's wrong with Michael Goldfarb's reasoning faculties? While discussing John McCain's appearance on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, Goldfarb made the following observation.

My only gripe with the interview: On the one hand, Stewart attacks McCain for taking the Hamas endorsement of Obama at face value. On the other hand, Stewart thinks Bush is 'al Qaeda's Rev. Wright,' i.e. a tool they use to fire up their base. You can't have it both ways--either you care what terrorists think or you don't. McCain clearly doesn't, but like he says, this ain't beanbag, and the Hamas endorsement was as much a missed opportunity for Obama as it was fodder for McCain. As to whether Bush is a recruiting tool for terrorists--who cares? Al Qaeda was recruiting before Bush was in office and they will continue to do so after he's gone. The important thing is that we keep killing those recruits. Eventually, one side will give up. And if Obama wins in November, we know which side that will be.

Either Goldfarb just wants to kill Muslims or he just wants to have a good cause to justify bloated military budgets. I don't know which is true...possibly both. But we can't kill off every terrorist until there is no more terrorism, and we certainly can't do that if we are making terrorists faster than we can kill them. It's obviously safer and more economical to avoid creating a terrorist in the first place than to hunt them down and kill them. That logic is so unassailable that to ignore it is prima facie evidence of an deceitful ulterior motive.



Display:
.
Ex-Guantanamo Detainee Joined Iraq Suicide Attack

BAGHDAD (IHT) May 8, 2008 - A Kuwaiti man who complained about maltreatment during a three-year stay in the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was involved in a deadly suicide bombing in northern Iraq last month, the U.S. military confirmed.

Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi, 29, whom the U.S. military accused of fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan and wanting to kill Americans, was involved in one of three suicide bombings that killed seven Iraqi security forces in Mosul on April 26, Defense Department officials said.

They said that after his release in Kuwait, Ajmi traveled to Iraq via Syria -- a common way for foreign fighters to enter Iraq through porous borders. Military officials said Ajmi's motives were unclear, but in a lengthy martyrdom audio recording before his death, Ajmi implores people to take part in suicide bombings to attack Americans.

In portions of the recording translated by the Bethesda-based SITE Intelligence Group, Ajmi decries the conditions at Guantanamo as "deplorable" and urges others to fight.

"Whoever can join them and execute a suicide operation, let him do so. By God, it will be a mortal blow," Ajmi says. "The Americans complain much about it. By God, in Guantanamo, all their talk was about explosives and whether you make explosives. It is as if explosives were hell to them."

...
Abdullah, 30, had been missing for two weeks and his family learned he left Kuwait illegally for Syria. Abdullah had sent messages to his wife from Iraq, he had a son after he was released from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States holds suspected terrorists.

Summary of Evidence for Combatant Status Review Tribunal -- Al Ajmi, Abdallah Salih Ali [pdf]

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

by Oui on Sat May 10th, 2008 at 10:55:17 AM EST
"The important thing is that we keep killing those recruits."  So how many have you killed, Mr. Goldfarb?  Signed up yet?

This is what Jane Hamsher described as the "ability to be sanguine about the violent deaths" of others.  It exists in abundance on the modern right.  (Another reason they deserve to get pounded in November.)

by danps (dan at pruningshears_dot us) on Sat May 10th, 2008 at 10:56:40 AM EST
I'll go with bloated military budget.

Everyone should see The Power of Nightmares.

by Cee on Sat May 10th, 2008 at 11:23:15 AM EST
I think that it's a point of strength to Obama's candidacy that most of the "negatives" about him are actually about people that his enemies keep trying to associate with him: Ayers, Wright, Farrakhan, Hamas, etc. Even the Obama-haters in Hillaryland can't do much more than point their fingers at bloggers who they associate with Obama.
by Bob In Pacifica on Sat May 10th, 2008 at 12:13:05 PM EST


Display:
Go to: [ Booman Tribune Homepage : Top of page : Top of comments ]
Menu
Login
. Make a new account
. Reset password





Find textbooks at Alibris!

NOTE: Overstock bests Amazon's prices and is "blue."

THE BOOKS WITH "BUZZ":
______________

Learn the real story behind the CIA's War on Terror:

The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals
by Jane Mayer

Read Barack Obama's vision for America:

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
by Barack Obama

DaveW recommends:

I Am a Strange Loop
by Douglas Hofstadter

Need some laughs?

I Am America (and So Can You!)
by Stephen Colbert

rae recommends:

Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire
by Morris Berman.

On BooMan’s shelf:

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
by Doris Kearns Goodwin

This looks interesting:

Adventure Divas
by Holly Morris

Here’s a good one from
Elizabeth Gilbert:

Eat Pray Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert

"Crash" * Best Motion Picture, Academy Awards * Only $11.79 at Overstock * 2006 SAG Winner, Best Ensemble

Check out
Powell's new section:
NEW FAVORITES

Selected new arrivals at 30% off

Recommended by Indianadem and ejmw:
The Conscience of a Liberal
by Paul Wellstone

From northcountry’s bookshelf:

The New Golden Age:
The Coming Revolution Against
Political Corruption and Economic Chaos
by Ravi Batra

A novel about contractors in Iraq from the woman that runs The Spy That Billed Me:

Outsourced: A Novel
from RJ Hillhouse.


SOTW-120x90
Download Sleeper Cell on iTunes (Better than "24") Download Weeds on iTunes (Hilarious 1/2-hour adult comedy starring Mary-Louise Parker) Download Late Nite with Conan O'Brien on iTunes
John Belushi - SNL
Download South Park on iTunes
Verve Vault

James Hunter - People Gonna Talk:
James Hunter - People Gonna Talk
icon


Great Deals
----- * ^ * -----

Find mystery novels by Nancy Pickard ("Kansas")



Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power by Phyllis Bennis (interviewed on DN!)


Featured by Keith Olbermann, New (Powell's Sale): Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower by William Blum (whose other books merit serious consideration)


"Explosive" State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration
by James Risen


The book the CIA doesn't want you to read: Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander
Larry Johnson's review


BT's all-time best seller:

PERMACULTURE:
A Designers' Manual

$79.95 * Sale: $59.95


Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women's History (Third Edition)


The Undercover Economist: Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich, the Poor Are Poor And Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car!


The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
by Timothy Egan


Green Press Initiative
----- * ^ * -----


Journalistas: 100 Years of the Best Writing and Reporting by Women Journalists by Eleanor Mills * NYT review


Bury Me Standing: the Gypsies & Their Journey


1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus



Brokeback Mountain
by Annie Proulx
----- * ^ * -----
Check out Powell's
"At The Movies"


Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World by Noam Chomsky (Power & Terror: Post 9-11 Talks)


The Price of Privilege:

How Parental Pressure and
Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of
Disconnected and Unhappy Kids

by Madeline Levine


Save 35-70% on
name brand clothing,
footwear, and outdoor gear
at SierraTradingPost.com

:





We listened to PEN American Center's "State of Emergency" and found 1940s books by Curzio Malaparte only at Alibris. (Selection (MP3) excerpted from "The Skin.")

Alibris - Books You Thought You'd Never Find
Banned Books * Are you a fan of Film Noir, Art House, Documentaries or Hong Kong Action? * Searching for a long-lost children's book or a first printing of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue on vinyl? Find it at Alibris!

:
:
www.Patagonia.com


Listed on BlogShares

© 2009 Booman Tribune