In response to my recent quote of an OpinionJournal post, some people questioned whether there really are a substantial number of Western commentators who defend the Iraqi insurgents, or at least justify their actions as being a supposed campaign for self-determination, allegedly justifiable rage at Western misbehavior, and so on. I think this is a good opportunity to collect examples of such people, to show that they do exist, and are worth criticizing.
If you have some such worthies in mind, please post the following in the comments:
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The name and brief description of the person (e.g., columnist for this or that newspaper, official in this or that prominent organization).
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An exact quote in which they defend the insurgents or seek to justify their actions.
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The URL of the article where the quote can be found. Please refer to original sources, rather than copies of the sources on other sites, copies of copies, and so on. (If you have LEXIS access and found the article there, but the article is not available online, include the name of the newspaper, magazine, or broadcast, the date, and the name of the article.)
Please also
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Stick with quotes that are pretty unambiguous — no need to dilute the clear stuff with questionable material.
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Stick with journalists, officials, or at least famous people; avoid comments by unknown people on others’ blogs.
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Check the thread before posting, to avoid duplication.
Many thanks — this should be a useful resource for people who want to respond to questions about whether such people actually exist. (For a sample of where I’ve done this once before on another topic, see my page on calls for total bans of handguns or all guns, which I posted in response to the common argument that supposedly “no one is talking about banning guns, so your slippery slope concerns are just paranoia.”)
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