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Neo-Con Pipes: Cockeyed View of the World

Daniel Pipes is a neo-con, one of those who was much "involved" in advising the US to invade Iraq, now a Director of the Middle East Forum [whatever that might be!] and a "darling" of those who share his rather starnge neo-con view of the world.

For some reason the ABC PM program decided to have Mark Colvin interview Pipes the other night.....

"DANIEL PIPES: Well, some countries far away are important to us, and… but not every country far away is important to us.

In other words, what I'm arguing against is the very widespread idea that we the Western countries and specifically the coalition countries are responsible for what happens in Iraq - I mean, something goes wrong in Iraq it's our fault, it's our problem, we must remedy it.

MARK COLVIN: Well what about the so-called pottery barn rule that Colin Powell is alleged to have told the President - you break it, you fix it.

DANIEL PIPES: I profoundly disagree with it. I think it is possible and necessary at times to go to war without taking responsibility for the country that you make war on."

How extrarordinary! Yep, we can invade a country, start a war, foment civil strife and perhaps even a civil war - but it's not our problem let alone our responsibility.

Read the complete transcript of the Colvin interview with Pipes here.

Yesterday morning Pipes was again on the ABC. This time on John Faine's Conversation Hour on ABC 774. To say the least Faine, deservedly, gave Pipes a very hard time indeed. . Labelling Islamists "barbarians" was asking for trouble from a perceptive interviewer. Check out this interview on ABC OnLine here.

Interestingly, Pipes observed [which says something about the US media - and why it is that Americans are so ignorant about what is happening in Iraq] that he had noticed more coverage of Iraq in the Oz press than in the USA.

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