Monday, October 29, 2007

Crackpot Krugman: Islamofascism a "Figment of the Neocon Imagination"

The New York Times may want to reconsider the decision to allow everyone to see the nonsense coming from their esteemed stable of columnists, especially this kook.

He works in all the leftist buzzwords: neocons and fearmongering among them, accusing the right of paranoia and racism and basically calls everyone crazy if you don't think like him.

I wonder if he even sits back and reads what he's writing. In one breath, he labels Iran a fourth-rate military power, yet warns that attacking them will only make them stronger.

Huh?
Yes, the Iranian regime is a nasty piece of work in many ways, and it would be a bad thing if that regime acquired nuclear weapons. But let’s have some perspective, please: we’re talking about a country with roughly the G.D.P. of Connecticut, and a government whose military budget is roughly the same as Sweden’s.

Meanwhile, the idea that bombing will bring the Iranian regime to its knees — and bombing is the only option, since we’ve run out of troops — is pure wishful thinking. Last year Israel tried to cripple Hezbollah with an air campaign, and ended up strengthening it instead. There’s every reason to believe that an attack on Iran would produce the same result, with the added effects of endangering U.S. forces in Iraq and driving oil prices well into triple digits.
This piece is so incoherent, he goes from claiming we have nothing to fear from Al Qaeda and Iran, but sums up that they're a real threat, but he's more afraid of paranoid, fearmongering, racist Republicans.
Just to be clear, Al Qaeda is a real threat, and so is the Iranian nuclear program. But neither of these threats frightens me as much as fear itself — the unreasoning fear that has taken over one of America’s two great political parties.
Thanks for clearing that up.

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