Michael Rubin's review of George Packer's Assassin's Gate is a thing of such rare beauty that one hardly dares look at it directly for fear of spoiling it.
Shorter George Packer: the neo-conservatives told us magical stories of fairies and unicorns who would shower us with hugs and puppies, which we really wanted to believe but in retrospect probably shouldn't have. Doh!
Shorter Michael Rubin: Packer dishonestly fails to tell us about the fairies and unicorns we found in Iraq, or how they showered us with hugs and puppies.
Coming soon - Rubin's expose about how the State Department, egged on by Juan Cole and John Kerry, mercilessly murdered all the fairies and unicorns just before they could shower us with hugs and puppies. Also, his detailed analytical account of Ahmed Chalabi's triumphant sweep through this December's Parliamentary elections, which only he accurately predicted - with a detailed dissection of the literally thousands of Iraqi National Congress votes that he'd just like to see so-called Iraq experts explain away!
I can't wait!
Interesting that he's now on retainer at the Daily Star. Is this another David Brooksish, heinie-covering, affirmative action plan for think-tankers or a sign of rapprochement between the Beirut intelligentsia and the American right wing in the wake of the Harriri assassination?
Posted by: Moloch-Agonistes | December 22, 2005 at 04:52 PM
probably just syndication... I've had a couple pieces in the DS too, and I don't think I was on retainer!
Posted by: the aardvark | December 22, 2005 at 06:04 PM
Your list of weblogs citing this piece misses Brad DeLong: http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/12/if_i_had_infini_6.html#comments
Posted by: Alan | December 23, 2005 at 02:15 PM