Too Predictable

The LeftWingNuts are just too predictably FUNNY sometimes (or is it funnily predictable?). And sometimes I (of all people!) forget this.

Let me backtrack to earlier this evening, when I was reading Peter Beinart's new article on TNR's website. Beinart argues that hawks have not addressed the arguments of antiwar leftists that any attack on Iraq will be driven by oil. Such an argument seemed so nonsensical to me as I read it that I didn't figure it was worth posting the article to Reductio, even in the headlines sections (disclosure: I work in the evil oil industry, giving me some reason to think that antiwar lefties are just nuts on this one; the industry HATES the idea of war in Iraq).

But then I read Jonah Goldberg's NRO article, which picked up on Beinart's article, and other concerns. Writes Jonah:

I can't remember where I read it or even who said it, but an old story keeps popping into my head. A former leftist-turned-conservative (from the old Partisan Review crowd, I think) encounters an unreconstructed lefty at a party. The lefty starts spouting all kinds of silliness about capitalist robber barons or American imperialism or some such. The conservative responds, "Your arguments are so old, I've forgotten the answer to them."

The debate over Iraq is cluttered with these kinds of arguments. You can't turn on a radio or see a TV debate on the issue without someone throwing around something you know is stupid, but you can't quite remember why. So I thought I'd start compiling a list. It's not exhaustive, but it's a start.

Well, okay, but sometimes Jonah stretches a point because he's a humorist, and he likes to find the hilarity in matters political (especially when it involves the Left). And his column is short on specifics.

So I'm left thinking... well, sure, maybe Katrina vanden Heuvel and Phil Donahue and a couple of other LeftWingNuts (and throw in Pat Buchanan for good measure, but with him it's all about the Jews of course) may actually put forth the sort of silliness Jonah describes, but it's really not that prevalent among serious people or syndicated columnists (who are sometimes considered, rightly or wrongly, to be a member of the former group).

And then I run across Robert Scheer's column in the LA Times. Important newspaper. Journalist of the Left. Surely it won't be as silly as Jonah suggests.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

What was I thinking? Of course it is, beginning with the title: "The Sun Can't Set on This Empire Too Soon: The U.S. has no right to indulge in imperialism." It's full of almost everything Jonah suggests (and a few less polite things). There's oil:

Imperialist greed is what "regime change" in Iraq and "anticipatory self-defense" are all about, and all of the rest of the Bush administration's talk about security and democracy is a bunch of malarkey.

In the laundry list of reasons the Bush team has been trotting out in defense of a unilateral invasion of Iraq, oil is never mentioned. Is the fact that Iraq holds a huge pool of oil a piddling footnote to this debate? Is that Gulf War protest sign, "No Blood for Oil," too cynical, even passe? Perhaps we should ask National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, who served as a Chevron director and had an oil tanker named after her.

And here's another Scheer quote:

That is why our CIA facilitated the rise to power of Iraq's Baath party and ultimately the succession of Saddam Hussein as its current leader. The first Bush administration supported Hussein, providing him with the means to wage chemical and biological war, up to the day he invaded Kuwait, another of our client states.

Two of Jonah's "Silly Lefty Arguments" right off the bat! And the handy thing is, all one really needs to do is go read his column and have a good chuckle at Scheer's expense. Pre-emptive political humor, if you will.

Oh those LeftWingNuts.... I underestimate their ability to make me laugh sometimes. I really do.

(10-02-02 Update) Matt Welch points us to this little gem in the LA Times: a helpful gathering of all the AntiWarLeftWingNuts. Priceless.

(10-02-02 Update 2) Jonah has even more today.

[Posted at 22:09 CST on 10/01/02] [Link]