I like to think that I’m honest about what I write. Unfortunately, I have been exposed as a duplicitous liar — in the pages of the New York Times, no less — along with a variety of other right-of-center critics of the Iran war. It would appear that opinion writer Michelle Goldberg knows my mind better even than I do.
“Republicans Know This War Is Going Badly,” the headline announced. Goldberg cited a 2,700-word item I wrote this week as evidence to support the charge that those of us who say otherwise are concealing our sincere misgivings. How would one prove such a claim but through a process of mystical divination? Oddly, the Times’ opinion editors waived the scrutiny they would apply to any other contributor who made such a weighty allegation.
So, how does she know this war is going badly, even if she doesn’t know that we know that, too? Well, the prospect of limited (and clearly unpopular) ground operations as a contingency in this war suffices for evidence that American war planners are improvising their way through it. It’s odd, then, that reporting indicated within the first week of fighting that Trump was contemplating the need for special-forces operations inside Iran, similar to those executed in Caracas. It’s all news to Goldberg, anyway.
The facts of her case — or lack thereof — notwithstanding, for the Times to say that I’m deliberately misleading you is quite the claim. I doubt such a claim by some other writer would make it past National Review’s editors, but perhaps the Times opinion page has different standards.