Brendan Calling

Sebastian Mallaby: Empty-headed Windbag

Atrios is tearing Sebastian Mallaby a new asshole today, and I’m inclined to join in the fun.

I had problems with Mallaby, a man who to the best of my knowledge has never worn a military uniform either for Britain (his country of origin) or the United States but felt he had the right to call John Kerry a traitor in 2005.

Today, Stupid Sebastian is lamenting “The decline of trust”, especially in matters of war.

The boom of the 1990s boosted trust in business; the 2001 terrorist attacks boosted trust in government. But CEOs and politicians abused these gifts with scandals and incompetence. Such is the cost of corporate malfeasance and the Iraq war: Precious social capital is destroyed by leaders’ avarice and hubris.

Funny thing happened on the way to the presses: as Duncan points out, Sebastian forgot to mention how HE abused the trust his readers at the Washington Post put in him:

Mallaby, 09/09/2002:

Now consider the challenge of Iraq. Pretending that Saddam Hussein does not pose a threat is like pretending that global warming or global poverty poses no threat: It involves ignoring the evidence. Hussein has amassed biological and chemical weapons and seeks nuclear ones…. The threshold question on Iraq is the same as the threshold question on climate change: Are you willing to acknowledge the threat and do something about it?

The Bush administration, again to its enormous credit, is willing to engage this problem…. It is the critics who are blinkered, for it is they who refuse to see a real threat. And it is the critics, in many cases, who have called repeatedly upon the administration to engage in the world — and who now pout and sulk because their calls have been answered.

Fuck you, Sebastian. I don’t need lectures from the likes of you about “hubris” and “avarice”, and frankly neither does anyone else.

Go away, hollow man.

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