"If we'd just strap a bazooka on her back and drop her into Baghdad, the war would probably be over in a day. "

Yeah -- they'd take one look at her and blast us all to shit. Who could blame them? Between Islam and Rand, I'd take Islam too.

Lil' Annie sez: "What journalists mean by "objectivity" is: relentlessly attacking your own country while engaging in mindless boosterism of the enemy. At least now we know."

Funny how saying something critical about a republican administration is treason, but when she builds a career on attacking a democratic administration, that's patriotism.

Oh well, she's just a distraction from the machinations of the Project for a New American Century anyway. Enjoy the side show.

Now, now, Rev Mykeru, you don't see any difference between Coulter and Arnett? Really?

Ms. Coulter was obviously highly critical of the Clinton administration, but I don't recall her going to Bosnia to do an interview for Milosevic's tv station about what brave soldiers they had, and what a great job they were doing resisting the Americans.

Mr. Welch, if you would choose the depravation, depravity and hatefulness of Islamists over the capitalism and reason of Rand, then you condemn yourself not us. If you see the better but choose the worse, it does not take anything away from the better.

Oh I see, on the one side is "deprivation, depravity and hatefulness," on the other, "capitalism and reason." In other words, if your idea of the latter doesn't accord with Rand's view, you can look forward to a lifetime of the former.

Certainly that was Whittaker Chamber's take, in his original review for National Review, on the Randian mindset as portrayed in Atlas Shrugged:

".... the mind, which finds this one natural to it, shares other characteristics of its type. 1) It consistently mistakes raw force for strength, and the rawer the force, the more reverent the posture of the mind before it. 2) It supposes itself to be the bringer of a final revelation. Therefore, resistance to the Message cannot be tolerated because disagreement can never be merely honest, prudent or just humanly fallible. Dissent from revelation so final (because, the author would say, so reasonable) can only be willfully wicked. There are ways of dealing with such wickedness, and, in fact, right reason itself enjoins them. From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: `To the gas chambers— go!'"

Ayn Rand was a Russian Jew who was 11 years old at the time of the communist revolution, and was fortunate to escape with her life. She was a survivor of the Russian holocaust.

She was also a strong advocate of the American constitution, and strictly limited government. In other words, she was pretty nearly the exact opposite of Hitler's political views.

That Whittaker Chambers (a converted communist) knew all this and then wrote the paragraph that you list above shows the wickedness and dishonesty of the man. I care not that he identified himself at that point as "conservative" or where he wrote.

There's significant room for political and philosophical disagreement, but yes, if you see the irrational hateful death cult of Arab radicals and prefer them over Rand's American vision of freedom and free markets you mark yourself as evil.

Does it show wickedness or dishonesty coming from an ex-Communist -- or someone who simply knew a fascist when he saw one? I'm sorry -- I see no freedom in either the world according to Rand or the repulsive cult of personality her writings helped foment.

The U.S. "war plan has failed."

Correct me if I'm wrong--a dozen other U.S. analysts, including former U.S. generals appearing on international TV and quoted in international publications, said essentially the same thing about the first stage of the invasion in the same news cycle.

The U.S. was caught off guard by "the determination of the Iraqi forces, the determination of the government, and the willingness to fight for their country."

Ditto.

"I've met unfailing courtesy and cooperation, courtesy from your people and cooperation from the Ministry of Information."

Um...what would you say if you were trying to keep a brutal totalitarian regime from kidnapping more journalists and get them to return the ones they have unharmed? Would you antagonize the regime? This is just common sense--it indicates no support for Iraq. If I were a journalist being held in jail by Saddam's regime, this is exactly what I would want one of my colleagues to say to the government. What was he supposed to do, employ the Bush Doctrine of Total Belligerence?

"President Saddam Hussein had personally ordered that these prisoners be treated well. ... Saddam wants them given the best medicine and the best food."

Well, duh--what are you supposed to say to encourage good treatment of prisoners? Doesn't anyone get that he is in freakin' Iraq? Does Ann Coulter think he's free to say whatever he wants?

She's criticizing him for not saying things that could get him and others killed. What would she do in his shoes?

Oh, and find me the journalist in Iraq who is pointing directly at the government officials and screaming, "You're tools of a brutal dictatorship that tortures people! You're evil!"

Really--find me this info.

Even if we take over in Iraq what have we won? Hussein becomes more of a hero and we occupy a land full of people that resent us. Peter Arnet is on the right side of history. The only good thing coming out of this is that such a calamity usually raises our awareness so that it won't happen again. Of course I always thought that about Vietnam. I guess there is something about the american public that makes them slow learners. Sooner or later they will have to get down off of their high horse. Humility can have a high price.

Even if we take over in Iraq what have we won? Hussein becomes more of a hero and we occupy a land full of people that resent us. Peter Arnet is on the right side of history. The only good thing coming out of this is that such a calamity usually raises our awareness so that it won't happen again. Of course I always thought that about Vietnam. I guess there is something about the american public that makes them slow learners. Sooner or later they will have to get down off of their high horse. Humility can have a high price.

Ann Coulter. Michael Moore. I think they should meet and have a baby . . .

Bill,

Yikes!

I would kinda like to see that.

I compared Moore and Coulter here recently.