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SCREW THE TROOPS! You will be shocked to learn that William Kristol does not, in fact, believe that various left-of-center magazines "support the troops." Indeed, they're not only not supporting the troops, but "those on the cutting edge of progressive opinion are beginning to give up on even pretending to support the troops. Instead, they now slander the troops."Heavens! The evidence is a Nation article and New Republic piece in which actual troops talk about various instances of brutality and depravity occurring in Iraq. Supporting the troops apparently means silencing all those troops who would offer a view of our military's comportment in Iraq that conflicts with officially sanctioned war-porn. But this sort of thing is old hat for Kristol. The American Prospect doesn't get special mention in the article, but shortly before the war started, he gave an interview to The National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez, in which he said:
Lopez: Is there anyone you can think of (nation, pol, constituency) the Bush administration has not convinced that going into Iraq is necessary who should and can be convinced?Kaplan & Kristol: Liberals. Not liberals at The Nation or The American Prospect, who can always be counted on to favor tyranny over anything that strengthens American power, however marginally…It's true. I mean, if given the choice between making America 62 percent stronger and giving Iran's leaders the power to ban Q-Tips -- pretty marginal, I'm sure you'd agree -- we'd totally side with a build-up of earwax benefiting tyranny. Later in the interview, Kristol goes on to say "Having defeated and then occupied Iraq, democratizing the country should not be too tall an order for the world's sole superpower," further proving that Bill Kristol gives the greatest interviews anywhere.--Ezra Klein
