Vodkapundit - Bringing Nukes to a Knife Fight?

Bringing Nukes to a Knife Fight?

Posted by Stephen Green · 15 August 2003

Charles Krauthammer comes down strongly in favor of appointing Daniel Pipes to the U.S. Institute of Peace:

Who is Daniel Pipes? Pipes is a former professor at the U.S. Naval War College. He has taught history and Islamic studies at Harvard and the University of Chicago. He is a scholar and the author of 12 books, four of which are on Islam. Unlike most of the complacent and clueless Middle East academic establishment, which specializes in the brotherhood of man and the perfidy of the United States, Pipes has for years been warning that the radical element within Islam posed a serious and growing threat to the United States.

Warbloggers, of course, are quite familiar with Dr. Pipes and his impressive record -- not to mention his lucid writing. So here's the bit that stings:

President Bush is considering bypassing the Senate and giving Pipes a recess appointment while Congress is out of town. For Bush, this would be an act of characteristic principle and courage. The problem, however, is that such an act makes the appointment look furtive. Worse, it lets the McCarthyites off too easy.

Indeed. Pipes deserves a loud public hearing, with just as much rancor on his behalf as we've already heard against him, from the likes of Ted Kennedy, Chris Dodd, and Tom Harkin. While a recess appointment would certainly be a case of the ends justifying the means, it wouldn't do anything to solve the public-perceptions problem.

Let's see just how much pull Krauthammer has these days.

Comments

Pipes deserves two things: a public hearing and the position. Bush can only give him one of the two, though--the public hearing will be blocked until the next election.

I'm not a big fan of recess appointments, but I think this is one case where it isn't such a bad idea.

Posted by: zombyboy at August 15, 2003 10:40 AM

Christopher Hitchens has come out against Pipes. Aziz has already linked to this, favourably, on unmedia & shiapundit. Food for thought among us neo's who think Hitchens is on our side.

I had a look through Hitchens's four or five arguments (details on my own blog) and I think he's wrong, to varying degrees, on three-and-a-half or four of them.

The one on which Hitchens has a point is the most important one - that Pipes hasn't got an answer to charges that profiling Arabs is similar to profiling Japanese.

Posted by: David Ross at August 15, 2003 06:07 PM

Americans of Japanese Ancestry who were locked up in camps during WWII were separated out from the bad hats (who could be identified by US intelligence, as the Navy said). The latter were concentrated in one high-security camp and deported to Japan after the war. The objection to "profiling" the others was that we could know who was who, yet ignored this.

In the case of Arabs at this time we do not know that, and we do know that Arabs have hijacked our aircraft and committed other terrorist acts against the US around the world. Practically nobody else has done these things, and those few who have were led to it by Muslim Arabs. Until we reach the level of knowledge we had in WWII and unjustifyably ignored then, we are justified in taking increased precautions against the people who are using terrorism against us. As somebody once commented, the Constitution is not a suicide pact.

Posted by: Michael Lonie at August 15, 2003 07:05 PM

Well, Michael, those certainly count as examples of the "answers to such charges" for which I was asking, whether they be good ones or bad ones. It'd be nice if Pipes would show as much courage as you have.

Posted by: David Ross at August 15, 2003 07:27 PM

I'm for the recess appointment. Nothing is to be gained by providing the asshats across the aisle and a willing media with more grist for the idiotarian mill.

Better to have the right man in the right place at the right time, than score a political point. Which will be either buried in the back pages or turned against Pipes and Bush as further proof of a right-wing agenda.

Plus, Hillary may be provoked into another moonbat public rant...a side bennie.

Posted by: feste at August 16, 2003 02:45 PM