Posted 5:07 PM by Gene

Last night there were flashes of lightning on Free Republic as the members complained that Peter Arnett was in his Gulf War Saddam Defense mode. I paid little attention to it, thinking, oh well, tomorrow some poor clerks will look like Vincent Van Gogh, and some useless e-mails will wind up in cul-de-sacs, and that'll be the end of it. Today, Peter Arnett lost his job. Part of it may have been that he worked not for GE or Microsoft (his nominal employers) but for the National Geographic Society, hardly an outfit to court controversy, even with topless Africans. Then again, he probably got sacked because soooo many news hacks, from the BBC to Evan "My Grandfather Was a Socialist Candidate for President" Thomas to Robert "Beat Me" Fisk, have taken Saddam's line hook line and sinker, and many are angry about it. They're angry because to defend Saddam means defending tyranny, mass murder, torture, rape, death. In the heart of the calculus lies Vietnam. The people who got us out of there ended up defending tyranny and mass murder too. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice....