Friday, April 09, 2010

Wrong Horse

Liz Cheney's latest broadside, echoing through the usual Angry Right outlets --

There is a saying in the Arab world: “It is more dangerous to be America’s friend than to be her enemy.”

Leave aside that she uses this expression in connection with Hamid Karzai, who recently threatened to join the Taliban and isn't Arab. Only an Arabic speaker can tell us for sure whether there is such a saying, but there's not much record of such an expression. Furthermore, the Google quickly determines that the expression entered American political discourse with ... Henry Kissinger --

"Nixon should be told that it is probably an objective of Clifford to depose Thieu (South Vietnamese president Nguyen Van Thieu) before Nixon is inaugurated. Word should be gotten to Nixon that if Thieu meets the same fate as Diem, the word will go out to the nations of the world that it may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal." [Source: Barry Popik]

And there's a Pat Buchanan article that concurs.

One hopes that Cheney is not comparing the UK, Israel, and Afghanistan (the supposed victims of the slaps) to South Vietnam. And at a time of war!

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