Another corker from the BBC, attacking U.S.-U.K. enforcement of the no-fly zones in Northern and Southern Iraq. Money sentence:
The no-fly zones – which have never been sanctioned by the United Nations – were imposed by the US, Britain and France after the 1991 Gulf War, in what was described as a humanitarian effort to protect Shia Muslims in the south and Kurds in the north.
The sneer is unmistakable. In fact, the no-fly zones were a direct result of U.N. Resolution 688, designed to protect the Kurds and Shi’a from mass slaughter at the hands of Saddam. They saved thousands of lives and have resulted in a remarkably stable and democratic Kurdish enclave in Northern Iraq. But note how the BBC has to say that they are “described as” a humanitarian effort. Is Tariq Aziz writing their copy? Or just the Vatican?
THE LEFT’S MICHAEL SAVAGE: I often get emails linking to one Michael Morford of SFGate, an online branch of the San Francisco Chronicle. I usually chuckle, but rarely link because the guy seems, well, “disturbed” is not far off it. Anyway, the latest one is worth looking at purely from an anthropological point of view. The far lefties who assume you agree with them, the really angry ones who are somehow also into good karma, the ones who simply cannot understand why any intelligent person doesn’t believe that the U.S. is obviously a tool for corporate genocide or some such atrocity – here is one small part of their id. I offer you this opener:
Wanna know what conservatives really hate? What makes everyone from harmless GOP dittoheads to ultra-right-wing nutjobs full of rage and hiss and homophobia and blind jingoism roll their eyes and throw up their hands and scamper for their Bibles for reassurance that life is still repressed and we’re still going to war and Dubya is still smackin’ ’round the envurment along with them wimmin and homosekshuls and furriners? Why, hippie crap, of course.
Take it from there, Mark. But please understand that some of us actually love hippie crap, and we’re fighting to keep people like you free enough to do their thing. Somehow, I don’t think Osama and Saddam would be so indulgent.
The Dish 