In a June 2007 opinion column, Joseph Farah, founder of WorldNetDaily, described Texas Republican congressman Ron Paul as “clueless about the nature of the threat we face from Islamo-fascism.”
While professing admiration for Dr. Paul’s commitment to the Constitution, Farah wrote that he couldn’t support the congressman’s presidential bid because “America is under siege from Islamo-fascist enemies….This is no time to back down or even to appear to be weak. It would be disastrous if we cut and run now as Ron Paul suggests.”
Three years later, Farah has endorsed the wisdom of cutting and running.
“For the life of me, I cannot begin to understand our objectives in either Iraq or Afghanistan,” he wrote on July 22. “[E]nough is enough. We have spent over $1 trillion on these two wars and spilled far too much American blood… What is the point?… I say bring the troops home now.”
A potent clue regarding Mr. Farah’s dramatic volte-face can be discerned from the title he chose for his essay: “Where are the protests of Obama’s wars?” Apparently the problem isn’t the fact that the government Farah selectively despises is killing foreigners who never harmed nor threatened us, but rather that it is too wasteful of American lives and treasure — something he can see clearly now that a Democrat is in the Oval Office.
“We have spent over $1 trillion on these two wars and spilled far too much American blood,” writes Farah. “We are obviously unwilling as a country to do what is necessary to kill the bad guys in either place, so what is the point?”
Approaching the matter from a slightly different angle, Farah describes himself as “stunned by how little debate is raging in America over these quagmires.Where is the anti-war movement when we really need them?”
Until recently, of course, that same anti-war movement was assailed by Farah — who considered debating the war a sign of division and weakness in the face of the enemy — as a key element of an anti-American Fifth Column.
“I admit I was a supporter of both of these campaigns,” Farah concedes. “I was obviously wrong.”
This was a difficult and commendable admission. It would be appropriate for Farah to recognize that Dr. Paul — like other anti-war conservatives and libertarians — was correct to insist that our country should never have permitted the government ruling us to begin those wars in the first place.
10:11 am on July 23, 2010
