A post on the Belmont Club website, 'Three weddings and a Funeral', attempts to bring together Geoge Galloway's 15 minutes of fame, the unconstitutional manoeuvres of the Canadian Paul Martin government, the Newsweek toilet debacle and the massacre in Uzbekistan to form a conclusion about the war on terror. The first three are all examples of the way in which the 'once magisterial left' has descended to shrill and cheap defensive tactical manoeuvres, while US support for the tyrant of Uzbekistan shows that the real danger to freedom and democracy comes not from the left 'but from the temptation to betray principles for tactical gain'. Hmmnn. I agree with the last bit, but I'm not sure I'd so cheerfully dismiss the role of the shrill and cheap left in the ongoing threat to our way of life. however, the following passage skewers them in particularly joyous fashion:

'The Newsweek affair was, in its way, a demonstration of how the mighty have fallen. The Koran-flushing story can only be understood in the context of the media's unexpected failure to play is accustomed role in the shaping the agenda on the War on Terror, the debate over the United Nations and above all, the 2004 elections. Watching Newsweek build a vaporous story and getting caught out is like seeing a once great prize-fighter resorting to eye-gouging, headbutting and ear-biting on his inevitable slide down into the undercard. Like Galloway and Martin, the Newsweek performance is one of ferocity, but ferocity in decline. There was a time when the Left was represented by the Jaures and the Jean Paul Sartres. Franco Molina once wrote a line for a Para general in the Battle of Algiers: 'Why is it that the Sartres are all born on the other side?" The Left could afford to speak down to its critics. But if Solina had waited a few decades more he would have seen them replaced by George Galloway, Michael Moore, Robert Fisk and Ward Churchill, who now await only the arrival of Bozo the Clown to become the Five Amigos.'

Glorious.

Posted by melanie at May 18, 2005