Jon Schwarz: The 10 Most Awful Articles in the Weekly Standard’s Short Life IV: "'The Bumpy Road to Democracy in Iraq” by Fred Barnes, 2004. 'Operation Iraqi Freedom has gained impressive momentum', Barnes told us when he ventured to Baghdad a year after the Iraq War began. But like so many of history’s pith-helmeted white people, Barnes was concerned by the recalcitrance of the dusky natives. Iraqis, wrote Barnes, 'need an attitude adjustment.... Iraqis are difficult to deal with. They’re sullen and suspicious and conspiracy-minded.... Papers obsess on the subject of brutal treatment of innocent Iraqis by American soldiers.' But Barnes knew Iraqis were being treated well by U.S. troops, because the troops were super-nice to him. Barnes concluded by saying that he wanted to see Iraqis demonstrate 'an outbreak of gratitude for the greatest act of benevolence one country has ever done for another'...
#shouldread #journamalism #orangehairedbaboons #moralresponsibility
