Prof Harpoons Maroon -Wolcott on Juan Cole's Goldberg smackdown

[Rose Siding]

Juan Cole looks like a professor and acts like a professor, but don't let that fool you--he actually is a professor. But that doesn't mean he's incapable of administering a righteous punk smackdown. Get his glasses steamed, and he'll punt you into the next time zone, as Jonah Goldberg has just learned to his bruised chagrin. Goldberg, a.k.a. "Jabba the Hack," presumed to challenge Cole on the subjects of Iran and Iraq, venturing into the field of combat armed with nothing save a brazen gall that could be sold on the open market as seal blubber.

"I think it is time to be frank about some things," Cole begins. "Jonah Goldberg knows absolutely nothing about Iraq. I wonder if he has even ever read a single book on Iraq, much less written one. He knows no Arabic. He has never lived in an Arab country. He can't read Iraqi newspapers or those of Iraq's neighbors. He knows nothing whatsoever about Shiite Islam, the branch of the religion to which a majority of Iraqis adheres...

"Jonah Goldberg is a fearmonger, a warmonger, and a demagogue. And besides, he was just plain wrong about one of the more important foreign policy issues to face the United States in the past half-century. It is shameful that he dares show his face in public, much less continuing to pontificate about his profound knowledge of just what Iraq is like and what needs to be done about Iraq and the significance of events in Iraq."

Yes, I would say that's being frank. But why should such moon-crater gaps in Goldberg's knowledge hinder him from expounding with complete bogus confidence? He's never let his ignorance handicap him before, and he's not about to start now. That would be a betrayal of everything he studied in Pundit School....More......

(it's very good -plus link to Cole's piece)...
http://jameswolcott.com/archives/2005/02/prof_harpoons_m.php

[The Crazy Canadian]

1. Thanks for posting this.

I've been reading Juan Cole for some time know and just last night read Jonah Goldberg latest piece in the National Review Online where he attacked Cole.

Goldberg is such a scum bag.

[Larkspur]

2. Juan Cole wins the "Harry Truman/Howard Dean" Give 'em Hell Award

Way to go Juan!!

I read Juan Cole's "Thoughts on the Middle East every day"

[rodeodance]

3. "I have to deal with this maroon, " te he

......Yeow. And Cole's not finished with conservatism's favorite funnyman. Goldberg attempts a rebuttal, which Cole lifts by the scruff and holds up for the shabby thing it is.

"Goldberg did not name any book he has read on Iraq, and admits he knows nothing about the 1997 election in Iran and will have to 'check with someone.' Wouldn't the time to do that be before he went into print criticizing me for saying something knowledgeable about it? He is openly admitting that he speaks without having the slightest idea what he is talking about! I have to deal with this maroon, and I have spent a lifetime studying this subject and know Persian."

Yes, but Jonah speaks fluent Simpsons, which is why he's so popular with campus conservatives as he goes about entertaining and mentoring the maroons of tomorrow.
02.05.05 10:55AM

[dbeach]

4. Viva Cole! Good read!

This standard of knowledge shoud be applied to the entire bush fraudelent and illegal admin and their neo-conthradals

[librechik]

5. a well deserved comeuppance delivered with utmost skill

what a windbag Goldberg is--Cole is a mensch.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Great Wolcott. Great Cole. Thanks for posting.

[Bark Bark Bark]

7. More: "Oh my God! He actually said it!"

I came into this little exchange of ideas rather late. I have learned this, though. Jonah Goldberg is a chunk of filth even a horsefly wouldn't touch:

http://www.juancole.com/2005/02/wolcott-on-goldbergs-language.html

Goldberg actually says,

"For the record, I did in fact mean it. I wrote it here. As for why my sorry a** isn't in the kill zone, lots of people think this is a searingly pertinent question. No answer I could give -- I'm 35 years old, my family couldn't afford the lost income, I have a baby daughter, my a** is, er, sorry, are a few -- ever seem to suffice."

Goldberg helped send nearly 1500 brave Americans to their deaths and helped maim over 10,000, not to mention all the innocent Iraqi civilians he helped get killed. He helped dragoon 140,000 US troops in Iraq. And he does not have the courage of his convictions. His excuse is that he couldn't afford to take the pay cut!

What is Goldberg going to say to the tens of thousands of reservists he helped send to Iraq, who are losing their mortgages and small businesses and have been kidnapped for 18 months at a time (not what they thought they were signing up for) by Rumsfeld? "Well guys, thanks for carrying out the policy I wanted to see, and for putting your own little girls into penury. I'd have loved to help out, but my little girl is more important than yours and besides, I like a good meal and I hear you only get MREs."

There is no hell fit for this...thing. Read it in disbelief.

[Rose Siding]

8. Who could read that Goldberg paragraph and NOT slash it to bits?

They've sent SIXTY year olds, none of the Guard can afford the lost income and baby daughters are NOT uncommon among military families.

He thinks he's a writer but he can't even hold a thought long enough to construct a sentence. (No answer I could give...ever seem to suffice")