"I Was Wrong"
Assyrian Ken Joseph Jr., a committed peace activist, recently visited Iraq as part of his effort to prevent the war with Iraq. He came away convinced that he was completely wrong, by the very people of Iraq who he visited to save from the impending war.
Joseph claims to have brought back tapes of ordinary Iraqis who wish for war to end the brutal tyranny of the Baathist regime. These tapes will be shown by Barbara Walters next week, according to Joseph's web site.
Joseph's accounting of his journey to, and escape from, Iraq, is gripping. Joseph also claims that his tapes, along with an extended interview conducted by Barbara Walters, will appear next week on ABC.
(First link via Viking Pundit.)
Dean,
Ken Joseph, Jr. tells one very compelling story. It's too bad we cannot forward his story.
I believe one main reason that American anti-war protesters so blindly protest their own country is that they are completely blind to exactly how cruel SoDamn Insane really is.
This story cannot be aired soon enough
Sigh. Sorry to say this, since I respect both Dean and Suman's writing, but y'all are smoking something when you think this will convince anyone of the hard-boiled fruits on the left. Plese don't hold your breath for any epiphanies.
I will liberally borrow from what I said over on CP...
The crimes of Saddam and the Baath party have been part of the public record for a long time. See the article by Ann Clwyd, the Labor British MP. She has visited Kurdistan and Northern Iraq and wrote some moving articles on conditions there.
Similar documentation by Amnesty, Human Rights and others. Ken Joseph did not do his homework or chose to dismiss it before he left.
Why.
Simple. He is motivated by anti-American sentiments. I live in NYC, I have talked with a lot of anit-war people both here and on the left coast and sometimes overseas. Their facts are non-existent and their logic appalling. Why do they protest the war so?
Like the professor at Columbia who said let a thousand mogadishus bloom they are solely motivated by anti-americanism. We went to Somalia to help those people and these anti-war fools celebrate the deaths of 18 soldiers who went there to feed them?
Facts or logic don't matter to the anti-war movement. Their sole motivating factor is irrational hatred of every American ideal and action.
What makes you think the rest of the left will listen when Ken Joseph talks?
...............
There is always an irrational element in any movement of significant size. Sometimes they lead a group of rational people along.
In the 1960s, many joined the John Birch Society because of its noble goal of fighting communism. Many later started leaving when they realized that the Birchers were a bunch of rabid lunatics.
There is also, always, the everyday person who is not particularly well-informed about politics, but likes the noble sentiments being expressed by certain irrational people, and hasn't been made to see the irrationality.
To presume that all on one side of an argument are typified by those with the biggest mouths and the smallest brains is to pre-emptively surrender the battle for the hearts and minds of the younger generation, and those who aren't news media and/or history addicts.
By the way, thanks for the comparison to Suman Palit, he's good. I'm honored. :-)
There are few things harder to do than admitting you are wrong about something important. For most people, it's hard enough to admit it to yourself, let alone publically. Joseph deserves immense credit for this, whatever his failures of study and imagination in the past.
I'm still trying to understand how the world has changed so much that I'm going to be watching Barbra Walters. On purpose.
I heard that.
I noticed that the page about the tapes being on ABC News is no longer available. Also, there is no longer any reference to ABC News on the other pages on the website, whereas there were yesterday. I wonder what happened...
I've been watching the AssyrianChristian.com web site for a few days. (That is where the "I was wrong" story was posted.) They have removed the notice that KJ would be appearing with Barbara Walters, but in email they told me that the interview was on for Thursday or Friday. I haven't been able to confirm this. They explained that they removed mention of the interview from their web site because they were concerned about violating network policies. (That is my paraphrase.)
KJ's father (who also has a web site) told me in an email that a couple of networks wanted the video, but his emails were very short and he doesn't always respond.
Anyone have any additional information about the interview with BW?
They haven't returned my email request for an interview. I begin to be suspicious that we've been had. But we'll see.
Dean,
Matt just posted a comment on my site about Ken Joseph appearing on MSNBC tonight. I posted an update here. I hope this pans out!
I read the article and was impressed. It does take courage to admit you were wrong. I give the man credit for this. He can redeem himself only by doing what he is doing- spreading the word and telling this untold and suppressed story.
Today is a great day for America and for the world. Our President, our Pentagon, and our military have delivered them from evil.
I can think of no higher moral use of our tax dollars than for this liberation in Iraq.
Thank you, Ken Joseph, for telling your truth that many of us have already known.
Today is a great day for America and for the world. Our President, our Pentagon, and our military have delivered them from evil.
I can think of no higher moral use of our tax dollars than for this liberation in Iraq.
Thank you, Ken Joseph, for telling your truth that many of us have already known.
Today is a great day for America and for the world. Our President, our Pentagon, and our military have delivered them from evil.
I can think of no higher moral use of our tax dollars than for this liberation in Iraq.
Thank you, Ken Joseph, for telling the truth that many of us have already known.