Monday, February 07, 2005
Goldberg vs. Cole
Juan Cole is a Middle East scholar at the University of Michigan, with impeccable liberal credentials. Jonah Goldberg is a columnist for National Review, sharp as a tack, and a master debunker. A real kerfuffle has been brewing between them, and has broken out of the blogosphere and into regular internet journals. Goldberg's Monday column lands some serious haymakers on Cole's chin. Here is an example of the sterling quality of Goldberg's argumentation:
Of course, even if Cole is right (that Iraq was probably 20 years away from developing a nuclear weapon), it's not as relevant as he thinks, since the salient issue was not what the reality was, but whether the U.S. could take the chance that people like Cole were wrong. Cole is very comfortable, it seems, relying on the goodwill of America's enemies. I am grateful George W. Bush isn't.
# posted by mds : 9:36 AM
