William Blum:--'Mush-Minded Liberals'

[Aidoneus]

February 18, 2004
Anti-Empire Report
Mush-Minded Liberals
By WILLIAM BLUM

The following is not simply a diatribe against humorist Al Franken. It's a diatribe against all mushy-thinking liberals. Franken tells us he is against the war in Iraq. But he was part of a tour that went to Iraq to entertain the troops, truly a feat of intellectual and moral gymnastics that enables him to oppose terrible military violence and crimes against humanity while honoring those who carry out the terrible military violence and crimes against humanity.

Would he have condemned the oppression and torture inflicted by General Pinochet while expressing his support of the Chilean troops carrying out the oppression and torture? The American troops in Iraq do not even have the defense of having been drafted. Country singer Darryl Worley, who leans "a lot to the right," as he puts it, said he was far from pleased that Franken was coming along on the tour. "You know, I just don't understand --why would somebody be on this tour if they're not supportive of the war?"

Franken says that the Bush administration "blew the diplomacy so we didn't have a real coalition." Presumably, if the United States had been more successful in bribing and threatening other countries to lend their name in support of the war Franken would have then seen the splendid beauty of the war effort himself.

He also criticizes the administration because they "failed to send enough troops to do the job right", the Washington Post reported. What "job" does the man think they were sent to do that has not been done up to his standards because of lack of manpower? Did he want them to be more efficient at killing Iraqis who resisted the occupation? {1}

And then we have the case of Michael Moore supporting unindicted war criminal General Wesley Clark for president. God help the American left.

--snip--

http://www.counterpunch.org/blum02182004.html