[lbo-talk] TNR: we were wrong

[dano]

At 1:07 PM -0400 6/21/04, Doug Henwood wrote:
>Ever since the New Republic broke with liberal orthodoxy by strongly 
>supporting President Bush's war with Iraq, the magazine has been 
>getting a steady stream of e-mails from readers demanding an apology.
>
>Now the left-leaning weekly has admitted that it was wrong to have 
>backed the war based on the administration's claims that Saddam 
>Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction.
>
>"We feel regret, but no shame. . . . Our strategic rationale for war 
>has collapsed," says an editorial hammered out after a contentious, 
>3 1/2-hour editors' meeting.

Your back-handed half-hearted apology for an abject, abysmal utterly 
wrong debacle is NOT accepted.

First - you *should* feel shame for the thousands of lost lives who 
are indirectly attributable to your stupidity. It is shameful that 
you do not, and a further indictment of your loss of humanity

Second - your so-called "rationale" was not valid then, just as it is 
not valid now. I fail to see why you do not understand that the 
fundamental reasons for the war have not changed. That is - they were 
untrue then just as they are now. It was your duty to uncover the 
truth and you failed in that.

In fact you failed to find the truth, and you failed to question 
further even if you did not find it worthwhile to pursue the truth. 
As a result of your failure to seek the truth many thousands of 
people have died, and the world is worse off.

I would quote the attorney Joseph Welch "Have you no shame sir(s)? At 
long last, have you no shame?"

But you have already answered no, "We feel no shame."

Your sub-apology is not accepted, and I hold you accountable.