The sheer litany of personal smears in Edward Said’s latest rant touches every crass populist chord. From questioning the patriotism of Ari Fleischer – “(who I believe is also an Israeli citizen)” – to the pathetic “chicken hawk” slur assigned to vice-president Cheney and others, the piece is a sign of how desperate the anti-anti-Saddam left is. Notice in particular Said’s outrage at the hopes of Wolfowitz et al to bring democracy to the Arab world:
Isn’t it outrageous that people of such a dubious caliber actually go on blathering about bringing democracy, modernisation, and liberalisation to the Middle East? God knows that the area needs it, as so many Arab and Muslim intellectuals and ordinary people have said over and over. But who appointed these characters as agents of progress anyway? And what entitles them to pontificate in so shameless a way when there are already so many injustices and abuses in their own country to be remedied?
Said gets it exactly wrong. What matters is not who brings democracy to the Arab world. What matters is that it might actually be on the brink of happening at all. Why, one wonders, should that be such a sad day for the left?
The Dish 