It’s popular to beat up on the NYT’s Thomas Friedman, but he hits on something important in today’s column, “Swift-Boated By Bin Laden” (TimesSelect). His point: the Bush administration never hesitates to launch vicious p.r. attacks against Democrats but is curiously mute on Qaeda-inspired atrocities such as the anti-Yazidi attacks of August 14, which killed over 500 men, women and children. “[W]hat was the Bush team’s response to this outrage?” asks Friedman. “Virtual silence.”
“Excuse me,” he continues, “but what exactly are we fighting for in Iraq, or in this wider war against Islamist extremism, if the murder of 500 civilians can be shrugged off?”
An excellent question, but Friedman leaves it hanging. The reason for the Bushies’ silence is simple: to make a big to-do about sectarian massacres like this would be off-message. Much more important to claim the surge is working. To deplore the Sinjar bloodbath in forceful terms might confuse the American public. Heck, it might even seem an admission of failure.
So yes, the right is shrugging off these deaths. But they barely register on the American cultural landscape anyway.
Here’s the thing: antiwar lefties are shrugging as much as anyone else. Take Tim Robbins, the very caricature of a dum-dum Hollywood liberal, on the season opener of Bill Maher Friday night. Robbins claimed that the U.S. has killed 400,000 of Iraq’s citizens, not pausing to consider the proportion of internecine violence represented in that much-debated figure. That, too, would be off-message.
Sure, one can (and should) argue that Bush’s cruel, arrogant and negligent policies led to the sectarian slaughter. But that does not mean U.S. forces have directly and wantonly killed 400,000 Iraqis. That is a lie, and it effectively lets the death squads and truck bombers off the hook. Their dead, mutilated and completely forgotten victims deserve a hell of a lot better.
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