The Shadow Party: Observations on our Booksigning in Washington

by Richard Poe
Sunday, September 10, 2006
8:09 pm Eastern Time

David Horowitz and I signed copies of our new book, The Shadow Party, this Friday past, in Washington DC. The occasion was the grand opening (or re-opening) of the newly renamed David Horowitz Freedom Center.(1)

Held at the Madison Hotel, the event featured a panel discussion on the War on Terror, which posed the question, “Is this World War III?” None of the panelists went so far as to offer a definitive “yes”, though Wall Street Journal writer Bret Stephens did wonder aloud whether future historians might someday view today’s fight in Iraq as a precursor to the main event, much as the so-called “Phony War” or “Sitzkrieg” of October 1939 to April 1940 preceded the epic bloodletting of World War II.

Panelist Christopher Hitchens defended America’s mission in Iraq with characteristic eloquence and zeal; Weekly Standard editor William Kristol — reportedly a member of Senator John McCain’s pre-presidential “brain trust“(2) — served up a confusing but appropriately McCain-like stew of hawkish sentiment watered down with ill-defined gripes over President Bush’s leadership.

On hand to recite the Democrat talking points was Lawrence J. Korb, our token Shadow Party panelist. A senior fellow at the Soros-funded Center for American Progress, Mr. Korb opined that, “By being in Iraq, we’ve limited our ability to respond to Iran” — a statement which strikes this writer as analogous to declaring that General Eisenhower limited his ability to attack Germany by deploying troops in England, North Africa, Italy and France or that General MacArthur limited his ability to strike Japan by first occupying the Philippines and Okinawa.

One wonders how Mr. Korb imagines we could “respond” to Iran without first securing Iraq. Perhaps he would have preferred a more direct approach — say, an amphibious assault on the Iranian port of Abadan by US Marines, while our fleet dodged Exocet and Yingji-82 missiles in the Persian Gulf, and Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard descended on our left flank.

For more details on Friday’s event and debate, see this report from Ali-Bubba.(3)

by Richard Poe

September 10, 2006 08.09 PM ET

Cross-posted from ShadowParty.com 09.10.06

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NOTES

1. “The Liberty Film Festival Merges with CSPC”, FrontPageMagazine.com, 14 June 2006; “A New Birth of Freedom”, FrontPageMagazine.com, 7 July 2006

2. John M. Broder, “McCain Mines Elite of G.O.P. for 2008 Team“, The New York Times, 21 August 2006; Richard Poe, “John McCain’s Brain Trust“, ShadowParty.com, 3 September 2006

3. Ali Bubba, “Debate: Is this World War III?“, Alabama Liberation Front (freealabamastan.blogspot.com), 9 September 2006