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Thursday, July 3, 2008

Why We Fight: Moral Clarity and the War on Terrorism / William Bennett -- NY: Doubleday, 2002.

I normally wouldn't bother reading anything by William Bennett, but after finding out that he quoted me by name, I had to look into this one. As it turns out, he refers to me as "the organizer of the Washington protests" (peace rallies coincidentally scheduled for two weeks following the 9-11 attacks). Here we have clear evidence of the shoddy research and unreliable statements coming from Bennett. While I was involved -- along with about 150 other people -- in planning the peace rally, I was hardly "the organizer." I suspect that Bennett wanted to attribute my view (rather randomly quoted in The Nation magazine) to someone important in the peace movement; so he elevated my role to fit his purpose. The "moral clarity" that Bennett purports doesn't seem to extend to honest, careful scholarship. Then again, maybe he's just laughably incompentent.

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