February 16, 2007
Dragging Lincoln Into Iraq IV Posted by John Steele Gordon at 06:25 PM EST Rep. Don Young faux-quoted Lincoln to be sure. I would recommend a little book called They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, & Misleading Attributions, by Paul F. Boller Jr. (a history professor) and John George (a professor of political science). It wouldn’t have saved Congressman Young from making a fool of himself in this case (although a little familiarity with Lincoln’s prose might have: It just doesn’t sound like him), but it is a fascinating compendium of things that were never said, or said by someone else, or said in some other way. Many a famous quotation—from the Duke of Wellington to Groucho Marx—goes down in flames. But it seems to me that Joshua Zeitz mischaracterizes what Representative Young said while phony-quoting Lincoln. Mr. Zeitz writes that Young “is suggesting that critics of President George Bush’s Iraq policy are undermining troop morale and should be treated as ‘saboteurs,’ a notion that is as obnoxious to the principle of free speech as it is dangerous to democratic process . . .” Young was suggesting that congressmen (not all critics) who “willfully take action” (not merely speak) are sabotaging the war effort. The measure that passed the House today (246-182), but is almost certainly a dead duck in the Senate, is mere speech, a “sense of Congress” resolution with no force in law. But if House Armed Services Committee Chairman John Murtha’s plan to place severe limitations on exactly how and under what conditions military forces can be used and deployed were to pass, that would certainly sabotage the war effort and, indeed, would have no other purpose than to do so. Representative Murtha is fully entitled to seek passage of any legislation he chooses, but his bill, if enacted, would force defeat on the United States. Sounds a bit like sabotage to me and would inescapably undermine troop morale. Defeat always does. Repesentative Murtha, of course, would deny he seeks defeat in Iraq. He would just prefer to win the war by basing troops in Okinawa instead of Iraq. And how what Representative Young—exercising his right of free speech—said is “obnoxious to the principle of free speech” is a mystery to me. It seems that many liberals have this odd notion that the First Amendment protects their right to say and advocate what they please but that criticizing what they say and advocate is somehow suppressing free speech. Like the leftist campus hooligans who regularly prevent those they disagree with from speaking (or recruiting), free speech, for too many on the left, is a matter of “free speech for me but not for thee.”
I also fail to see how criticism of the left by those on the right is dangerous to the Democratic process. It seems like the essence of it to me, just as criticism of the right by those on the left is.
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