Dolchstoss Chronicles
Where Max Boot, a clever jingo, has said ‘pass’ to the Reichwing‘s ongoing Teutonification Project:
The media aren’t the enemy in Iraq
Blaming the press for the problems in Iraq deflects the blame from where it belongs.
January 10, 2007IF WE WIND UP losing the war in Iraq, as now appears likely (though not inevitable), many conservatives know who to blame: the press, or, in blogger-speak, the MSM (mainstream news media). Just as it did during the Vietnam War, a myth is likely to develop in which America’s valiant fighting men and women were stabbed in the back by unpatriotic, even treasonous, reporters.
[…]
If we fail to achieve our goals in Iraq — which the administration defines as a “unified, stable, democratic and secure nation” — it won’t be the fault of the ink-stained wretches or even their blow-dried TV counterparts. To argue otherwise deflects blame from those who deserve it, in the upper echelons of the administration and the armed forces. Perhaps that’s the point.
Above: Reading material for Yoshi.
Adam Yoshida triumphantly cuts to the front of the line:
The Knife and the Back
From the very beginning what has frightened me most about the Global War on Terrorism is this: that the United States and the West simply do not, in their present condition, have the stomach to bring this war to a successful conclusion. I have never really been given a satisfactory answer to the question, “how do you win a war against the enemy in front of you while ignoring the knife-wielding enemy behind you?�At every step, the left – and its many allies on the rest of the political spectrum – have sought to obstruct all efforts to win this war. At every turn they’ve handcuffed our forces and circumscribed our options.
[…]
rather than join in the effort to defeat this enemy, certain treasonous elements within lurking here at home have seized the opportunity for their own petty political advantage – or, in certain cases, out of genuinely-felt but nonetheless objectively evil moral principles.
The enemy within acts as a form of heavy artillery on behalf of the wider enemy conspiracy.
[..]
When liberals betrayed us during Vietnam and stabbed our soldiers and our allies in the back, the result was millions of dead. Not that many people noticed because it happened in a far away land about which we know little. But, if we let them pull off their betrayal this time, the millions of dead will be in our own cities. They will come from our own towns and our own homes.
Once again it takes Adam Yoshida to say in the plainest way what Glenn Reynolds, Rush Limbaugh, Redstate.com White Trash, Mark Steyn, Jim Pinkerton, Patrick Bateman Stephen Green, Marie Jon’, Michael Barone, and, especially, Jeff Goldstein really mean. They all think the ‘enemy within’ aids the enemy outside. So the question is, since Adam has, I believe, accurately conveyed what they groupthink of us, does he also accurately convey their thoughts on a remedy when he writes the following?:
What is required today is what has been required from the very beginning: an all-out and total offensive against the enemy on all fronts and without the least shred of compassion or restraint.
[My emphasis; batshit-insanity in original]
Glennocide for the enemy without, but what for us, the ‘enemy within’? Not that Nazified Wingnuts have the power to do what they’d like to us, but what if they did? Adam’s on record advocating that the domestic Muslims, at least, be shoved into human-sized microwaves. Now I doubt the rest of the dolchstossers have that sort of vivid imagination — Michelle Malkin’s for instance, stops at advocating internment camps. But my point is this: don’t underestimate such sociopaths as these. Sure, their direct influence is on the wane, and their Dear Leader is politically dead. But millions of True Believers now living will never die; spiritually, the knife they imagine in their movement’s back will be impetus enough for a “Lost Cause” crusade lasting for generations. And every paranoid psychopath like those listed above will spawn others who’ll, in turn, also reach for the Dolchstosslegende to tell their kids at bedtime, propaganda being for them what ghost stories are to a greener, saner world. It’s not that these people are violently crazy in all aspects, it’s just that politically, the actions and policies they advocate — not to mention what they imagine but, aside Adam, do not say — are so appallingly cartoonish in their supervillainy.
What does he mean, our soldiers? Did he go to the same school Ann Coulter went to where they taught that Canada sent troops to Vietnam?
You know, “our soldiers” as in “we, the perpetual advocates of endless wars of agression who never actually fight but who somehow manage to feel a sense of personal ownership over the U.S. Armed Forces while we grow ever pastier in our moms’ basements”.
What’s even further depressing about this is that according to the U.S. propaganda system (where any imperial action can never, never be questioned) only allows for two options to explain an apparent loss: (1) the pacifists and weaklings stabbed us in the back at home; and (2) the natives we were trying to help proved unworthy of our efforts.
The division is coming down to: Republicans grab for the “stabbed in the back” explanations, while good Democrats are beginning to grab the “unworthy natives” line by blaming Iraq for failing to turn the batsh*t chaos we created by utterly destroying Iraqi society into a happy dancing land of ponies and harmony.
You know, it’s not that we don’t have the stomach for empire, we don’t have the time. Most of America is busy in dozens of commercial empires, all happy to conquer the world and each other, battles won in the playing fields of Havard Business School. It’s not surprising the White House is so packed with business wash-outs, prime example number one being W himself.
Pathetic worm, if you want to know who keeps ‘stabbing you in the back’ stop avoiding eye contact with your reflection in the mirror you’re using.
Problem solved.
I love the conservative rewriting of Vietnam.
In their telling, all the war, instability and genocide in Cambodia came about because we left Vietnam. None of that chaos stemmed from the fact that Nixon spent four years bombing the country extensively –16,500 secret sorties, with 380,000 tons of explosives dropped.
No, no. It was Dan Rather getting us to cut-and-run that caused the chaos.
And that Nixon and Kissinger overthrew Prince Sihounuk, putting in a military dictator. Which subsequently turned Pol Pot and his crazies from a small cult into a viable opposition party.
Maybe we can convince the wingnut caucus that there is an Enemy Within the Within. There are subversive conservatives who doubt the Dolchtoss. Max Boot has stabbed the back-stabbers in the back by failing to believe the country is being stabbed in the back! Their paranoid personalities will take care of the rest.
Um, Adam Yoshida is a canadian moron living in his mothers basement. What do you care what he thinks? Damn, he lives in British Columbia for gods sake. By his own standard, he should be shot for treason for having advocated a foreign invasion of his country. (He believes that the US should invade Canada to secure the Athabascan oil fields). Quoting his is like quoting, well, Bryan Preston of Hot Air. I mean, who the fuck cares!
I have never really been given a satisfactory answer to the question, “how do you win a war against the enemy in front of you while ignoring the knife-wielding enemy behind you?�
For my part, I have never really been given a satisfactory answer to the question, “Where is any shred of proof that news media coverage, no matter what its bias, is negatively affecting the Iraq war effort or the American public’s ‘resolve’.”
Perhaps, Yoshi, our ‘resolve’ is dissolved by gross incompetence, arrogance and malfeasance on the part of our political leaders, such as they are. It can be a real bummer.
Personally, I would be interested in seeing a demonstration and clear explanation of the mechanism by which peace marchers, and liberal writers, who hold no positions of power and demonstrably little influence with those who do, and a corporate owned media that is at least half biased towards the batshittery to begin with (not to mention the overwhelming preponderence of war enthusiasts among the pundit class) has had such a far reaching and insurmountable effect on the armed forces, thousands of miles away.
I mean, where is there a causal connection, other than the secret mind rays these guys believe in?
The closest I’ve ever seen is the vague references to emboldening the enemy. as the Rude Pundit says, why should we care what an enemy thinks?
Besides, Don’t they hate us for our freedoms? Which includes the freedom of dissent, and the freedom of the press, and the freedom of demonstrations. So the more of those things we have, the more irritated the enemy will get, right?
All I can think is, my, we have a weak military if it can be completely thwarted by a few simple demonstrations and letters to the editor at home. maybe we should stop using it for all our foreign relations.
… and I have never really been given a satisfactory answer to “How far to the right does the MSM actually have to go to be considered legitimate to these people?”
Pointless question of the day: do pro-war activists know the media is supporting the war (with their in-bed journalists) or do they just pretend otherwise to whip up support for their cause?
rather than join in the effort to defeat this enemy, certain treasonous elements within lurking here at home have seized the opportunity for their own petty political advantage – or, in certain cases, out of genuinely-felt but nonetheless objectively evil moral principles.
Guilty as charged! But come on, Wilson was a dick and deserved to be outed. The CIA wasn’t giving us the intel we wanted, so we put Feith in charge. (And man was that ever funny – that guy can make up anything.) Senior Pentagon staff wanted hundreds of thousands of troops, which might raise questions we didn’t feel like answering. What did you expect from us, to solve these things on their merits and create a real strategy to win the war on terror? To unite the country behind sound leadership without partisan rancour? To go to the UN and not pull out a can of utter bullshit? Well, Terri Schiavo to you too asholes, because that’s not how we do business around here!
It’s not just bloggers. It’s the “respectable” conservative intellectuals who are crafting the Dolchstosselegende, since it’s the only way to dodge responsibility for their own fuck-ups.
(Pardon the blogwhoring)
Maybe Adam could find a scapegoat of some kind…perhaps he could take a cue from the German NS party and blame the Jews…or Libruls?
After all, taking responsibility for your own actions is something people like Adam have absolutly no idea about.
Perhaps next he could figure out a way to finally solve the problem of having so many Libruls around…he could call it ‘The Final Solution’.
What a complete fucktard…
p.s. Again I say, screw Godwin…these people are completely nuts.
Billy Pilgrim said, “Personally, I would be interested in seeing a demonstration and clear explanation of the mechanism by which peace marchers, and liberal writers, who hold no positions of power and demonstrably little influence with those who do, and a corporate owned media that is at least half biased towards the batshittery to begin with (not to mention the overwhelming preponderence of war enthusiasts among the pundit class) has had such a far reaching and insurmountable effect on the armed forces, thousands of miles away.”
It’s all the spitting, Billy. Peace marchers, liberal writers and their corporate media comrades standing at recruitment centers, military bases, embarkment points and the Pentagon, endlessly spitting on anything military. They even drove Donald Rumsfeld out of office with their rain of spittle. Just like the way they brought the Vietnam war to an end with their salivary salvos. The Army’s atomic cuspidors and robotic spitoons are no match for the power of leftist spit!
As it happens, I just saw Sophie Scholl: Die Letzten Tage the other night. I knew the story (idealistic young Germans write & distribute leaflets protesting the idiocy of fighting a war their country cannot win & the waste of blood & treasure it exacts). They are rounded up, placed on trial after confessions are extracted, and die without losing their idealism or their belief in their opinions. I know about Godwin’s law — but there are terrible parallels here. The folks on the extreme right do feel that dissent is the enemy. The fourth estate is largely a propagandist arm of the government (see today’s CNN quick poll …). We are being “led” by a moronic “commander-in-chief” with .. ah .. issues who is ill-suited as a deep thinker or military tactician. We were misled into an illegal war by a corrupt and war-mongering government. And the Republicans put their party ahead of their country. I could go on — it’s just a scary & shameful period of America’s history unfolding right now. 🙁
I note with disappointment, by the way, that Yoshida has failed to produce the promised follow-up post, where he would explain “how [the final solution] would look.”
I’d really like to know which internment camp I’ll be in, so I can get my mail forwarded in time.
“how do you win a war against the enemy in front of you while ignoring the knife-wielding enemy behind you?�
R1-R1-∆-O-O- L2-∆
Hokay, lemme get this straight. Our elected congress and working press by dint of simply doing their jobs are helping our enemies. So these big tough right-wing “kill ’em all” types think the solution is our elected representatives should stop doing the people’s business and our press should stop reporting the truth and merely become outlets for propaganda? Out of fear of some people in caves in pakistan? Or is this out of fear of the people who’s families we killed and homes we destroyed in Iraq? Either way, can somebody explain to me how what they are demanding is NOT appeasement?
mikey
Liberals caused millions dead in Viet Nam? Beware our deadly pot smoke & free love, baby!
What an ass this guy is. And you know in 3 years, he’ll be writing about how we need a press willing to criticize & question the Democratic president. Nevermind that President Clinton and VP Obama will be pilloried by the press, it won’t be enough for this inconsistent fascist jackass.
You forgot our good friend Mark Noonan in your list of dolchstoss enthusiasts.
Besides, Don’t they hate us for our freedoms? Which includes the freedom of dissent, and the freedom of the press, and the freedom of demonstrations. So the more of those things we have, the more irritated the enemy will get, right?
Yes, but if you apply D’Souzian logic, irritating the enemy is a bad thing. Instead of pissing off the bad guys, we need to straighten up our act and get rid of all those freedoms they hate about us. Once the so-hated freedoms are gone, the bad guys are happy and *poof!* no more terrorist threats against America!
And they accuse the Left of appeasement…
By the way, those tired of the hawks blaming *others* for the Khmer Rouge / Pol Pot takeover in Cambodia, check out the people who actually researched it: The Yale Genocide Project.
The U.S. hawks (and not just under Nixon) GAVE power to the Khmer Rouge. The U.S. bombed Cambodia from 1965 – 1973. The U.S. bombing destroyed nearly all of Cambodia’s social infrastructure: political, economic, legal — even agricultural.
Check out the link. It will show you a nice little map of Cambodia tracking each U.S. bomb dropped as a pink dot. It’s hard to tell, because basically most of Cambodia is a pinkened smear.
http://www.yale.edu/cgp/us.html
Who did they expect to take over in the bombed out remains of a society? Nice people? Unarmed Red Cross volunteers? Cambodian hippies?
No, U.S. warhawks destroyed Cambodian society and allowed a previously marginal group of warlord nutcakes to take over.
THEN, after the Khmer Rouge took over, the U.S. right wing went nuts screaming about the genocide THEY just caused.
AND THEN, after they realized that Vietnam (now a unified Communist government) didn’t like the Khmer Rouge, THEN they decided they LIKED the Khmer Rouge and they encouraged China to give them aid.
AND THEN, AND THEN, when Vietnam invaded and overthrew the Khmer Rouge genocidal government which the U.S. warhawks had been pretending to hate (and, no, they didn’t really hate them, they didn’t care at all how many Cambodians died from the Khmer Rouge just like they didn’t care how many Cambodians died from US carpet bombing, they just found their deaths ideologically useful) — THEN, THEN, THEN, the US warhawks GOT MAD AT VIETNAM FOR INVADING AND THROWING OUT THE KHMER ROUGE.
In a sane world, there would have been a giant, multi-story hypocrisy meter which would have just kept exploding, over and over and over, like a tiny fusion explosion trapped in some magically powerful magnetic field.
i just agreed with Max Boot and my head exploded. fortunately i can type without looking at the keyboard.
Yes, there are even a few wingnuts in our armed forces in Iraq who believe it is treasonous for Congress to be debating their mission. (And you can count on ABC News to track them down!)
See Adam, you can give up your chickenhawk ways, you don’t even have to read the Constitution to get in.
Adam should know that many foreigners gain the citizenship he covets by serving in the Armed Forces. Maybe he could go that route…
Ick. I just visited Yoshida’s blog for the first time. Please don’t make me go there again.
OT, if anyone wants to vote in the Atlas Photoshop Challenge, you can see all the entries and vote here.
/blogwhore
Geez, El Cid. Yale is only ok when pretending Bush isn’t an idiot because he legacied there. Otherwise, that’s just part of the left covering its ass with stuff like facts and reality and +5 vorpal swords. Hasn’t Stephen Colbert covered all this already?
Remember, everytime a liberal speaks, a terrorist gets his wings.
Or something.
Yoshida writes that the war fails because “at every step” the left has been obstructive.
The truth is that the left has had no power and no majority in any branch of the government, until last November. During that period of absolute control and lack of effective opposition, Bush botched everything, all by himself.
There was no stab in the back – just a series of rakes to the face.
“The enemy within acts as a form of heavy artillery on behalf of the wider enemy conspiracy.”
Yoshida just coronated us all “kings of the battlefield”. And here I thought all of us liberalmuslimhomomexifascists were queens!
Here’s a more colorful Dolchstoss graphic from the 20’s.
Max- you mean, While contorting themselves to constantly look for an imaginary Knife in The Back, the Bushies have totally ignored the series of Rakes to The Face.
Adam Yoshida isn’t just batshit insane, he’s unquestionably not sane. Canada has a national health care system, but I guess it speaks to its weaknesses this guy hasn’t been institutionalized yet. I mean, Pam Atlas has a well considered, balanced, nuanced view of the world compared to this guy.
Pre-emptive nuclear strikes, “macrowaves”, invasions of Canada, blaming the left for a war arguably lost the moment it was begun, all from a japanese canadian who refers to the US and its armed forces with personal pronouns?
Jebus, it’s not really funny in this case. It’s troubling. Give this guy a gun and he’s a danger to himself and others.
I really feel for the people who have to interact with this guy on a daily basis.
I’m ashamed that you put Patrick Bateman in with the likes of these guys (even if you did strike it out later). Sure, Bateman has his faults (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Bateman), but he never accused others of treason.
I am Spartacus!
When Yoshida is not busy crying for jihad against traitorous liberals he whiles away the moments writing letters to the editor. General Yoshida Battles the Pink Robots in this gem that he submitted to his local newspaper regarding gay marriage:
Leaving aside for the moment whatever you think about gay marriage, such a radical revolution in our society cannot and should not be forced upon us by courts and judges. The words of Justice Ken Smith are not handed down to us upon great stone tablets.
In the days and years to come, as the courts continue to impose this upon us, all of us should remember a single simple Latin phrase lex malla, lex nulla – a bad law is no law. We should fight this judicially-imposed abomination and, failing that, we should simply refuse to follow it.
Adam Yoshida
This is all a big misunderstanding. Adam think that the courts are not just allowing gay marriage but are ordering him to marry another dude so he’s lashing out in every direction.
How do you win a war against the enemy in front of you while ignoring that delish stud with the beautiful blue eyes, the taut thighs, the rippling six pack, the sultry come hither look who works in the cubicle adjacent to you?
This is called drinking the kool-aid and eating the cookies.
I have to admit, there’s something sort of vaguely endearing about the vast illiteracy displayed by using the phrase “The knife and the back”. It’s like he tried sooooo hard to get the doody in the toilet this time, but still ended up standing there with shit running down his leg.
But then again, I spent a long day to day working with highly disfunctional children who were all high on Valentine’s day sugar, so my sense of “endearing” is probably a little warped right now.
Well done Duros62! Grab the iron-back powerup Yoshi!
Apparently the cookies are made from dead libruls who must be rounded up and processed into Soylent Snacks for the ‘wingers.
In the end, we’re all just protein for the cheeto-munchers.
[…] lucidity and restraint on this subject is becoming quite distressing, Mr. Hanson. We fear that Adam Yoshida has already added you to his list of people whose televised heads he pretends to crush between his […]