Juan Cole: I’ll Be The Judge of That
Juan Cole sure has his, um, undergarments in a wad over the Iraqi document dump. Wonder what he finds so threatening? A challenge to his worldview, I suppose…
Is Juan suggesting the documents are forgeries? If so, considering they are provided by the Pentagon from seizures in Iraq itself, that’s a big accusation, and one that should have some proof behind it. Excuse me if I don’t hold my breath waiting for that proof to be produced…
This is weird. Juan’s a scholar of the ME right? I’d have thought he’s be ecstatic to get his hands on hundreds of documents giving an insight into the secretive Hussein regime. Instead he seems almost angry.
What gives? Could it be that he’s actually no kind of scholar at all, just another pathetic, washed up little leftist hack squatting in a tenured academic position?
As I understand it, the total volume is on an order of millions of pages of documents. Cole throws water on this one? M’kay. I notice he doesn’t include the actual text that describes Saddam’s program of international terror, including explicitly collusion with the Iranians and Al Queda. Again, fine and dandy. He takes this ONE item and finds it… unpersuasive. (And I’m DYING to find out what “lie” Stephen Hayes has promulgated.) Okay, let’s throw that one out. What else ya got? Maybe Dr. Cole could use his vast powers of intellect to translate some of these items. Maybe Dr. Cole might want to find out what the reality on the ground was at the time of the invasion and before. Oh, I forgot. He speaks Arabic (a bit) and therefore already knows. Must be nice…