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February 13, 2012
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David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
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Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
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Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
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Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
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January 30, 2012
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Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
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Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
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Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
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January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
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January 13, 2012
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January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
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Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
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January 11, 2012
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Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
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January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
June 25, 2004
/ 6 Tamuz, 5764
Conspiracy theories
By
Jonathan Tobin
Attempts to cast the war in Iraq as a plot should give its critics pause
http://www.jewishworldreview.com |
There are some people, I am told, who don't believe that 35 years ago,
American astronauts landed on the moon. At the same time, other members of the
public think that a vast conspiracy has covered up the discovery of UFO-type
creatures.
And still others cling to the notion that the CIA killed John F. Kennedy,
while a Jewish subset of this sector similarly thinks that Yitzhak Rabin was
murdered by the Mossad.
In other words, there are some really dumb people out there, a portion of
whom are stark-raving mad.
Conspiracies are the lifeblood of mystery novels and thrillers. They feed
into our fear that somehow, all of our troubles can be traced to a small group of
malevolent malefactors, whose plots and stratagems are designed to steal our
liberties and our money while we innocently sleep.
Such nonsense has helped employ a small army of writers, film crews and
actors for generations, with little effect other than to keep those people employed
and the weak-minded entertained.
So there should be no surprise about the fact that the Sept. 11 attacks — and
the American invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq that followed — would become
source material for the same sort of conspiratorial fantasies.
Soon after 9/11, rumors began sweeping the Arab world that the Al Qaeda
attacks were the work of Israel. A fable about the Jews who worked in the World
Trade Center calling in sick that day became widely accepted. Of course, this
attempt to blame a familiar target of Arab intolerance was somewhat paradoxical,
since many in the same sector claimed that only the Jews were smart enough to
have pulled off such a dastardly and complicated crime.
CRACKPOTS KNOW NO BOUNDARIES
But nutty conspiracy theories are not the sole province of the Jew-haters who
seem to dominate the Muslim world these days. Although it would be unfair to
draw a straight line between vile Islamic anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and
those of the American far left, let's just say that the crackpots of Cairo
might find something to talk about with the likes of, say, Tim Robbins or
Michael Moore.
Robbins, the Hollywood star/playwright, had his anti-Iraq war satire
"Embedded" produced at New York's Public Theater this spring. The play, which
portrayed the war as a neoconservative conspiracy, will be remembered chiefly for the
fact that, as Wall Street Journal critic Terry Teachout pointed out, Robbins
actually used a publication put out by lunatic left-cult leader Lyndon
Larouche as the source for a misquote of conservative philosopher Leo Strauss.
As for Moore, his new "documentary" film "Fahrenheit 9/11" is about to open
after a huge buildup in the press. The flick, which won the Palme d'Or at
this year's Cannes Film Festival, purportedly shows the war to have been a
conspiracy cooked up by evil-doers in the White House.
Among the chattering classes, Moore is considered something of a comic
genius, though his previous films were more agitprop than wit. I'll leave the
skewering of his latest work to others after it comes out. But I will note that any
one who could have written in a book, as Moore did in his best-seller "Dude,
Where's My Country?" that George W. Bush was behind the 9/11 attacks, or that
most Israelis "know they are in the wrong" in defending themselves against
Palestinian suicide bombings, is not exactly a trusted source on the subject of
the war on terrorism.
Though Moore belongs on the Sci-Fi Channel, his brand of analysis is being
treated as the stuff of mainstream debate on C-Span. And that has consequences
not just for the upcoming presidential election, but for the sanity of American
democracy itself.
After the failure to find Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the Abu Ghraib
prison scandal, ongoing American casualties and with seemingly little progress
made toward transforming Iraq into something that resembles a democracy,
skepticism about the war is widespread.
Second thoughts about the wisdom of the war are understandable. But they are
also a distraction from the real question of whether transforming the Mideast
from a hotbed for Islamo-fascism into a beachhead for democracy is
practicable. While the cause remains just, the answer to that question remains uncertain,
even though it can still be argued that the Middle East is a safer place now
that both the Taliban and Saddam Hussein have been toppled.
Yet what is troubling about the undeserved respect given Moore is whether his
film and the wacko world of conspiracy that lies behind it will help drive
the debate on the war during the presidential campaign. That is clearly the
intention of Moore and those who back him, such as the far-left MoveOn.org Web
site, which is hoping to push Democratic candidate John Kerry to move from second
guesses and sniping at Bush to open opposition to the war.
COMMON-SENSE ADVICE
Though common sense dictates that a major-party candidate should move to the
center rather than to left or right, Kerry may be advised that he can't afford
to let Independent/Green Party candidate Ralph Nader seize the initiative on
the war. Nader, whose presence on the ballot probably put Bush in the White
House in 2000, has said he will use the war as his top issue. If the gadfly
erodes the Democratic base this year as much as he did four years ago, that could
again sink the Democrats.
But Kerry should remember that the overwhelming majority of voters outside of
Hollywood and the Manhattan theater district are not as enamored of Bush
conspiracy theories as are the denizens of these places. Just as Bush must attempt
to navigate between his right-wing conservative base and the center, Kerry
must avoid alienating Americans who may have doubts about Bush, but still do not
question America's motives in the war on terror.
President Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Paul Bremer,
America's pro-consul in Baghdad, as well as some of the tactics they have
employed, are all fair game for criticism. But what's needed now from the Democrats is
a reasonable alternative policy that will not result in a U.S. retreat.
What we need from both parties is a commitment to a free Iraq, coupled with
unceasing pressure on the terrorists and their allies. Kerry should remember
there are more votes to be found there than in the nightmarish world of Michael
Moore.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent.
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© 2004, Jonathan Tobin
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