That “internal investigation” that TNR is running on the “Baghdad Diarist”?
Sure is taking a while.
It takes time to prove a negative, and it can be difficult to get your reputation back once you’ve been slimed. That’s why libel laws are so harsh, I guess. But in the interim, other folks have been looking in and while contra-indicatory results are not yet conclusive?
It’s not looking so good for “Scott Thomas.”
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Oh, and since we’re on the topic of media coverage of the war, remember that Lancet study a couple years back? The one that claimed that 98,000 Iraqi civilians had died because of the invasion and occupation that otherwise might not have?
Stuff, says a Harvard professor of statistics. Or, more accurately, he submits that the authors of the Lancet study cannot exclude the null hypothesis that mortality did not rise using their method. Which is probably not true, but when you somberly throw around very large numbers of civilian casualties in a “scientific” study whose timing at least appears to be designed to influence a national election, you have a responsibility to share your assumptions and caveats.
He also wonders why the authors of the study declined to provide either their raw data or the code used to generate their findings.
Someone more suspicious than myself – a cynic, perhaps – might wonder if they had something to hide.
Some of my more left leaning/peace friends seem to think the Lancet study proved that more than 300,000 Iraqis died due to the U.S. invasion. I seem to recall that claim as well. Where did the 98,000 number pop from? This study was suspect from the get go.
The sad thing about both these events is that once the toothpaste is out of the tube it is impossible to get it back in again.
Some people, and I happen to know a few, want to believe both stories are true. It justifies their world view and, this is from personal observation, makes them feel better about themselves.
The fact that a mainstream American publication like TNR would publish such a damning story about our military written under a pen name is very discouraging to say the least. The fact that after receiving this correspondence they didn’t immediately go to the Army and demand an investigation says a whole lot about their motivation. I can’t fathom publishing bile like this without first checking with the Army.
But then, that’s just me… I believe in our military and I support our troops. Clearly, TNR feels differently.
Thanks for the opportunity to comment on what should be the self – destruction of academia. It went from being the Ivory Tower of altruistic chaps doing a marvelous job for very little money, to being the secret weapon that won WWII and saved the world, to being a refuge for revolutionary thinkers on the forefront of a brave new world, to the monstrous indoctrination and propaganda machine it is today.
But why haven’t the budgets of the great land grant Universities been slashed by knowing politicians reacting to public outrage? Where’s the backlash? When’s the pendulum going to swing the other way? Is it true that the fraud Churchill finally got fired by U of Colorado only to be scooped up like a first round draft pick by UCSD? Why haven’t these snotty, overpaid, underworked hypocritical useful idiots felt it in the pocketbook like all others of us who miserably fail in our jobs?
Inquiring minds are dying to know. It remains for me one of the great injustices of our times.
It is easy for some to accept a far fetched, unrealistic, and even fantastical version of current events because it reinforces some latent insecurity regarding the US military and government. There seems to be a need, for some, on a very primal level to associate the US government with all that is deceitful in the world.
It seems that the Lancet group falls in this category of folk, the category that will stretch the limits of ethical scientific research to contradict the principal claim of the US that we are in fact doing this for the benefit of the Iraqis. It’s terribly unsettling to deal with people in this “camp” for several reasons, not the least of which being their insistence on a version of reality well outside my threshold for rational thought. It’s hard to debate the pros and cons of our government (i.e. military) when one party relies on the principle assumption that this organization is both withholding the truth from the citizenry as well as acting without the best interest of either our country or Iraq at heart.
It also doesn’t help when these leftward leaning groups are citing sources that are pretty much full of “it.”
~Ens Tim
Cottus, dude, it was a joke. UCSD probably won’t be hiring him (One hopes they’ve learned from their California Poet Laureatte fiasco). It’ll take someone more whacked-out than he to give him a job behind the lectern. Literalism is a disease. Don’t believe everything you read here, lmao.
Loved your first para, very tight.
Heh, Scott Thomas outed himself on The Plank — TNR’s blog. My guess is that now that everyone knows who he is, he’s going to get some one on one counseling from his battle buddies.
Jim C
Turds usually float to the top eventually. This one being particularly gaseous has popped right to the surface, Private Scott Thomas Beauchamp.
For those of you not in-the-know, a private is one of two things; either a new recruit who knows only the rudiments of the trade at best, or a shithead who has been busted, usually with good cause. To be serving in the field in Iraq, and holding the rank, it’s a high percentage bet that he is the latter.
From TNR: “I was initially reluctant to take the time out of my already insane schedule fighting an actual war in order to play some role in an ideological battle that I never wanted to join.”
Pure comedy…you can’t make this stuff up. “El-Tee, would you please call CENTCOM and reschedule that luncheon in Tikrit? Top just pegged me again for fire-guard…Oh, and where in the hell are my new fingerless gloves I ordered from Cabelas?”