How the Left Behaves Like the Right

When Rep. Joe Wilson shouted "You Lie!" in response to Barack Obama's assurance that illegal aliens would not receive federal heath care benefits, conservatives rushed to Wilson's defense.

When Glenn Beck revealed that Obama's green jobs advisor Van Jones had signed a petition for a new investigation into the events of 9/11 which contained language implicating the Bush adminisration in the attacks, Jones was forced to resign. What did the left do? They rushed to Jones' defense.

Joe Wilson demonstrated his discourtesy and stupidity, since he should know that the current draft of the health care bill already contains a clause preventing the federal government from giving illegals health care benefits.

Van Jones is also stupid, since he is evidently in sympathy with the conspiracy kooks collectively called the 9/11 Truthers.

But the left have made Jones a political martyr, dragging out their favorite old fetish object, McCarthyism. The analogy to McCarthy's red baiting is invalid. Unlike the targets of McCarthy's false accusations, Van Jones is guilty as charged of believing that the government was complicit in the 9/11 attacks, despite a complete lack of supporting evidence.

All week long I've heard Jones defended by radio talk show hosts Brad Friedman and Richard Green and their callers. Quite a few of the people defending Jones probably sincerely believe in some 9/11 conspiracy. Others know better, but believe that not to defend Jones is giving up ground to Beck and his ilk. Either way, it's intellectually dishonest and sad.

The Best Way to Remember 9/11

I spoke with a friend of mine shortly after the 9/11 attacks. He is a congenital conservative and self-confessed "dittohead." We spoke shortly after President Bush announced that the US would invade Afghanistan or after our troops were already there in pursuit of Osama Bin Laden.

Pat, my friend, was all for it. I was against it, for pragmatic reasons. I suspected that Bin Laden and his cabal had already fled Afghanistan, or if he was still there, we would somehow fail to get him. I felt that George Bush's tough rhetoric - dead or alive and all that - was risibly juvenile, and his statement that we wouldn't rest until we defeated evil eveywhere was just monumentally unrealistic and foolish. The invasion of Afhanistan was, I told my friend, an impotent gesture of vengeance that catered to the public's need to see someone punished for the attacks on 9/11. Our discussion was actually brief, concluding when my friend said, "Let's see what happens six moths from now."

U.S. military action in Afghanistan officially commenced on October 7, 2001. Since then, an estimated 10-30,000 civiians have been killed.

Osama Bin Laden continues to evade capture.

The U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, falsely premised on Sadam Hussein's connection to Al-Qaeda and 9/11, resulted in tens of thousands of Iraqi deaths.

The best memorial to 9/11 is continued oppositon to President Obama's escalation of the war in Afghanistan and our continuing war of occupation in Iraq.