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August 15, 2003

Pipes the Propagandist

Pipes the Propagandist
Bush's nominee doesn't belong at the U.S. Institute for Peace

By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Monday, August 11, 2003, at 8:23 AM PT

When I read that Daniel Pipes had been nominated to the board of the United States Institute of Peace (a federally funded body whose members are proposed by the president and confirmed by the Senate), my first reaction was one of bafflement. Why did Pipes want the nomination? After all, USIP, a somewhat mild organization, is devoted to the peaceful resolution of conflict. For Pipes, this notion is a contradiction in terms.

I am not myself a pacifist, and I believe that Islamic nihilism has to be combated with every weapon, intellectual and moral as well as military, which we possess or can acquire. But that is a position shared by a very wide spectrum of people. Pipes, however, uses this consensus to take a position somewhat to the right of Ariel Sharon, concerning a matter (the Israel-Palestine dispute) that actually can be settled by negotiation. And he employs the fears and insecurities created by Islamic extremism to slander or misrepresent those who disagree with him.

This makes him a poor if not useless ally in the wider battle. Let me give two illustrations from personal experience....

Full column

Read It Rating: 6
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 55%

Posted by Lance Brown at August 15, 2003 03:23 PM | TrackBack
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