Some things never change.

I will confess that when I first read excerpts of this I thought it was a spoof. I went to the original just because what is written is so out of touch with reality that I assumed it was fraud. Either that or the author, former 60s Marxist David Horowitz, was having one hell of a flashback.

Like many big government Marxists Horowitz has become a big government conservative and thinks that's a change. He's still in love with crusades and remaking the world over. It's still that Marxist desire to centrally plan. Except as a conservative Horowitz is less interested in centrally planning the economy and now believes Big Brother can centrally plan the entire world provided he uses the US military and prays in the process. Here are a few comments by Mr. Horowitz from an essay he wrote: "Everything the Left Said about the War is Wrong." You will note that according to Mr. Horowitz the anti-war movement didn't make some mistakes. They were wrong about absolutely everything! As a "convert" from Marxism Mr. Horowitz knows how to use the big lie for propaganda purposes.

Horowitz: "...what we witnessed was the swiftest and most bloodless conquest of an armed nation in the history of warfare. The immediate result of the victory has been exactly what the Administration promised: a swift liberation of a largely grateful Iraqi people, no terrorist outbreak, and no explosion of Arab rage." Swift liberation? The bloody battle is still going on years later. Nothing swift about that. As for liberation? From what to be precise? If he means from Saddam then yes. By that same standard Stalin liberated Poland from Hitler but they weren't free. Iraq has been liberated from Saddam but is far from free. Freedom requires more than the overthrow of one regime. It requires a culture of liberty. And the fatal flaw in the delusions of neo-conservatives like Horowitz is that the cultural values on which freedom rests can not be imposed at gun point. If it does not come from within it will not come from without.

This is precisely the reason that once "liberated" the Iraqi voters turned around and elected authoritarian theocrats to rule their nation. But one would suspect that Mr. Horowitz has few problems with authoritarian theocrats since he is fans of the one in the White House.

Horowitz calls Iraq a "three week war" which explains why more soldiers have died since "victory" than during the war itself. Horowitz argues that anti-war critics "said America could not fight international terrorism and Saddam at the same time -- as though the two could be separated. In fact, the Bush Administration showed it could do both very well at the same time." You will note that this is the reason that bin Laden is now in prison awaiting trial. Right! NOT!! It is for this reason that there have been no major terrorist attacks except the almost daily ones in Iraq and the attacks in London and in Spain. Those are the big ones that people remember but certainly not the only ones. Good thing we wiped out terrorism and with just a three week war at that!.

And notice the smuggled phrase "as though the two can be separated" to repeat the Bush lie that Saddam was involved in international terrorism. Even the Bush Administration has stopped peddling this rot and admitted they were wrong on a huge number things. Of course Bush believes in "staying the course" no matter how wrong it may be. But Horowitz can't differentiate his Right-Wing dreams from messy reality. And those weapons of mass destruction that Bush said were there. What of those? "Nothing the war has so far revealed would indicate that these threats were less than had been feared; much has served to confirm them." So nothing has indicated to Horowitz that the atomic bombs Bush hinted at don't exist?

Now and then, but not here, Horowitz writes something worth reading. But that is rare and one might find nickles in piles of horse manure but the search is not worth it. From his "Left-wing" days in the 60s not much has changed for Horowitz. Former Marxist, now with a permanent crush on George Bush, Horowitz has dropped Big Government for... well for Big Government. He used to spread propaganda that distorted facts in order to push an ideological end. Now he spreads propaganda that distorts the facts in order to push an ideological end. He used to think that smart Marxist central planners could centrally plan society. Now he thinks that smart Neo-Con central planners can centrally plan the world. And what is really delusional is that he thinks he made progress in his thinking and that he had some major change of heart along the way.