Over on The American Conservative's blog, this from Freddy Gray (well-known to some of us from The Catholic Herald), on Andrew Roberts, the pseudo-aristocratic heir to a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise:
Last week, the presence of Andrew Roberts at a valedictory dinner for President Bush in London prompted rumors that Roberts–every neocon’s favorite British historian–was being lined up as a ghostwriter for Bush’s autobiography. We have discussed this possibility in the latest issue of TAC.
It was obvious, though, that Roberts’ sycophancy wouldn’t wait until the president was out of power. In yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph,he wrote a very greasy op-ed heralding Bush as the great statesman of his time. We all know the drill: remember Harry Truman and you’ll appreciate Bush’s heroism.
"Give Iraq five, ten or twenty years, and Bush’s decision to undertake the surge - courageously taken in the face of all bien pensant and “expert” opinion on both sides of the Atlantic - will rank alongside some of Harry Truman’s great decisions of 1945-53."
To back this desperate just-you-wait-and-see rhetoric, Roberts uses the word “history” as a trump card to justify arguments he cannot reasonably support,
"History will also shine an unforgiving light on those ludicrous conspiracy theories that claim that the Iraq War was fought for any other reason than to implement the 14 UN resolutions that Saddam that had been flouting for 13 years."
And…
"Historians will appreciate how any War Against Terror that allowed Saddam to remain in place would have been an absurd travesty."
History might also show that Andrew Roberts was a consummate name-dropper and shameless social alpinist who used his formidable intellectual gifts to make friends in high places.
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History might also show that Andrew Roberts was a consummate name-dropper
ReplyDeleteWell, that's certainly nothing anyone could accuse you of, what with the seemingly endless parade of conveniently anonymous "senior figures" in the Labour Party, the Church, the Vatican and the British media.
Position-dropping, certainly, but not name-dropping.
Well, indeed.
ReplyDeleteI am always surprised to encounter people who claim not to know anybody like that, and therefore to find it either incredible or objectionable that I do.
Do they imagine that such people inhabit a different planet? Or do they themselves so inhabit?
Alas, we now have politics for people who are not interested in politics.