The War on Trinners

National Review magazine's Cliff May is directing people, via the mag's group blog, to his account of the GWOT debate at Trinity College Dublin's Philosophical Society a couple of weeks ago. He informs NR's readers that

It went well beyond garden-variety Bush bashing. With friends like these, who needs Militant Islamists?

where 'It' seems to cover just about every other speaker, moderator Charlie Bird, and most of the audience. An incident that will doubtless be recounted many times:

I criticized [Patrick] Cockburn and others in the media for having failed to report extensively on Saddam Hussein's mass murders and routine use of rape, torture and ethnic cleansing – crimes against humanity that never got anything like the attention attracted by the prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib.

Cockburn got so angry that he approached the podium and for a few moments it appeared he might take a swing at me.

We understand that Free Stater is trying to obtain a transcript of the evening's events to set a few things straight, not least May's apparent accusation of rampant anti-Semitism amongst his opponents. Updates as necessary.