Flit

SOMETIMES THE OLD GUY STILL

SOMETIMES THE OLD GUY STILL IMPRESSES

From the print version of the Nation, April 1:

MIT linguistics professor [Noam Chomsky] attended the Feb. 13 trial of Fatih Tas of Aram Publishing House, the Istanbul-based publisher of Chomsky's American Interventionism. Charges of printing "propaganda against the indivisible unity of [the] country, nation, and state" were dismissed when the hearing opened and Chomsky asked to be tried alongside Tas.

SPEAKING AND REMOVING ALL DOUBT,

SPEAKING AND REMOVING ALL DOUBT, REDUX: ERIC MARGOLIS

I love pro-Taliban writer Eric Margolis in the morning. He's such an idiot: he makes you thankful for your own neurons. There but for the grace of brain damage...

Ironically, the only nation where the U.S. war on drugs did work was in Afghanistan - thanks to its former Taliban regime. According to the UN drug control agency, the Taliban virtually halted cultivation and trade of heroin-producing opium poppies. Afghanistan supplied 80% of Europe's heroin and about 60% of America's. The American invasion and overthrow of the Taliban handed power to the Russian-backed Northern Alliance, which fully revived the heroin trade and now controls 90% of drug exports.

Now to understand Margolis, you have to know that he believes interim president Karzai is a U.S.-installed Oswald-like patsie, and the Northern Alliance still the real power behind the throne in Kabul. So yes, I would hope the Karzai government controls 90 per cent of the country's opium exports... if there'd been an opium crop yet since it took power. Ninety percent of zero is...? As to the Taliban, it's well documented Mullah Omar profited insanely for years off of opium exports, before suddenly burning all his crops in the fields a few months before Sept. 11. It's still unknown exactly why he did this, even among the Taliban (Omar was a whimsical absolute ruler), but it almost certainly wasn't under pressure from U.S. law enforcement agencies, I think it's safe to say at this point.

The burbling continues:

Just two weeks ago in Afghanistan, the U.S. lost eight soldiers and dropped 3,300 expensive precision bombs against will-o-the-wisp opponents in a failed battle in the Shah-i-Kot Valley (shades of Vietnam's IaDrang Valley battles).

Okay, the challenge is out. I defy anyone to find the slightest military parallel between Ia Drang and Shahikot, to back Margolis up, other than they both had American troops fighting in a valley. Knowing Margolis, it's remarkable he didn't also point out the amazing comparisons with the Shenandoah Valley and Valley Forge...

IT'S A BAD IDEA TO

IT'S A BAD IDEA TO USE WORDS THAT DON'T MEAN WHAT YOU THINK THEY MEAN

"One year ago, George W. Bush presented himself at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City as an avatar of free trade."

--National Post editorial, today