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Samizdata quote of the day.
As a general rule of thumb, when two non-government organisations, the French foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin, the BBC and the New York Times agree that the whole powder keg’s about to go up, it’s a safe bet that things are going swimmingly.
-Mark Steyn, reporting in the Telegraph about the lack of a humanitarian crisis in post-war Iraq.
Actually, the whole article is terrific, particularly his explanation of why the NGOs need to be sent home.
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Yes, a very readable, convincing article. Spirited stuff.
I think the best thing of all is simply the way Steyn went about reporting from Iraq. He didn’t get any special press accreditation, but simply flew to Jordan, rented a car, crossed the border, and drove around, like you would for most other countries. Iraq was largely closed to you and me until recently. Western tourists couldn’t visit. Now, however, Mark Steyn is free to come and go as he likes. If that does not indicate an enormously freer country, I don’t know what does.
What caught my attention was the passage when Steyn wrote about the BBC reporter who talked to an Iraqi who hasn’t been paid since March. That shows how desperate BBC (and other left-twisted media) is to find anything that can be, in a weird and illogical way, linked to the “horrible US attack” on Iraq. If you report about something that obvious, and try to twist it into something that’s just complete madness, it doesn’t take much brain activity for a 10 year old kid to see past the bullshit.
…but then again, if you’re brought up with bullshit, then it’s hard…
I am curious, though, as to why he didn’t go to Baghdad. It would be very interesting to get Mr. Steyn’s take on the situation in that city, as a corrective (one assumes) to all the other doom ‘n’ gloom reporting bylined from there.