"A fairly typical, run-of-the-mill liberal"

"During the Cold War, Soviet-funded front organizations tried to disarm the West, whether that meant supporting the North Vietnamese or attempting to prevent deployment of the U.S. Pershing missiles in Europe," writes Ariel Cohen at TCS, who says "Today's jihadi supporters [= useful idiots of the left] are working to delegitimize any effort to protect against or respond to terrorist networks. Tracking the leadership and funding of such networks is a counter-terrorist policy imperative." Would Baby Cakes (above) approve? No question. How about George Soros? Yes and no.

"Q: Your views about Israel are categorical and well known; your views about whether the Holocaust took place have been ambiguous at best," writes Bret Stephens in a most amusing and telling Wall Street Journal list of "Questions for Ahmadinejad (That Mike Wallace Didn't Ask)." Our favorite:

How about the Jews? Do you agree with the December 2004 statement of Iranian academic Heshmatollah Qanbari on Iranian TV, as quoted by Memri, that "all corrupt traits in humanity originated in this group [i.e., the Jews]"?

It doesn't bode well for the future of journalism if Bernie Goldberg is right that Mike Wallace is "still the best out there." The future of reporting the comings and goings of neighborhood cats, squirrels and other players in the side yard, on the other hand, is in good paws with Tiny (above) and her brother on the beat.

In the same issue of the Journal former CBS insider Bernard Goldberg weighs in with wit and wisdom, noting -- not without irony -- that "even at age 88, Mike is still Mike, which is another way of saying he's still the best out there":

But after watching his "60 Minutes" interview, I came away thinking that Mr.  Ahmadinejad understands us a lot better than we understand him. Over the years, dangerous men like him have learned how to play the media game. They have gotten quite sophisticated. I'm afraid we haven't . . .

In fact, instead of seeming like a modern Hitler (a not unreasonable comparison, given that one wanted to exterminate all the Jews while the other wants to wipe Israel off the map), Mr. Ahmadinejad came across as, well, a fairly typical, run-of-the-mill liberal. I listened carefully as he laid out his position on the war in Lebanon and on the Bush policy in Iraq, and I could not detect any significant difference between his views and those held by a lot of blue-state liberals, especially the liberal intellectuals on our college campuses.

Great stuff. And thank, you, Bret Stephens and Bernie Goldberg, for watching the "60 Minutes" exclusive so we didn't have to. We tried watching in reruns on C-Span, but the toe-curl factor was just too painful. Speaking of too painful to watch, Fox News ruined a perfectly good Reutersgate piece yesterday featuring blogosphere giant  Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs by adding a footnote to the effect that "both sides" in the Arab/Israeli war attempt to influence media coverage. Apples and oranges, but the Fox reporter made no moral distinction between Hezbollah's deliberate staging and Photoshopping of images on the one hand and Israel's commonsense policy of not allowing media access to battle sites in order to avoid inadvertant -- or otherwise -- aiding and abetting of the enemy.

Tiny (left) and Baby cover the waterfront in Chelsea-by-the-Sea this morning (Full panorama of details above).

Speaking of aiding and abetting, George Soros helpfully tells Opinion Journal readers that "the war on terror cannot be won":

It is now widely admitted that the invasion of Iraq was a blunder.

Not only that, but

As the British have shown, al Qaeda is best dealt with by good intelligence.

At the same time, warns Soros, we mustn't give the intelligence community the tools that allowed the Brits to get their men:

An endless war waged against an unseen enemy is doing great damage to our power and prestige abroad and to our open society at home. It has led to a dangerous extension of executive powers; it has tarnished our adherence to universal human rights; it has inhibited the critical process that is at the heart of an open society; and it has cost a lot of money.

Some people are never satisfied.

Comments

[goomp]

If the naive views of Mike and George which show no comprehension of human nature are to prevail, then it is my view that it is the end of Western civilization.

[Gayle Miller]

George Soros is the most egredious example of someone who is very good at one thing (making money in Mr. Soros' case) who then arrogantly assumes that he knows everything about everything when, in fact, he knows nothing about anything. And vociferously at that!

Is he a U.S. citizen? If he is, can we revoke the citizenship - and quickly? If he is not, then it's time to tell him to quit meddling in OUR nation!