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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Wally of the Week: Andrew Roberts


Well, there were other contenders as always, but this super-creepy comment piece in the Sunday Telegraph, in which Roberts doesn't just lick the posterior of the current U.S. President but climbs into it, won it by a country mile for our diminutive history man.

Roberts, the 'eminent' historian who, in the lead up to the war with Iraq compared the threat posed by that sanctions-devastated country, with its Dad's Army and non-existence air-force, with the threat posed by Nazi Germany at its peak, believes that history will say that we 'misunderestimated George Bush'.

Furthermore he claims that:
"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."

Yes, that's right, the US went to war, without UN Security Council support, in order to enforce UN Resolutions. Like they do all the time when UN Resolutions are flouted......

UPDATE: Freddy Gray at The American Conservative blog has a great post about Roberts' sycophancy, and why it might lead to some rich rewards.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know how history will judge President Bush.

The American historians of today hate his guts, as if that means anything.

I do not understand his relationship with the House of Saud. I'm not so sure that telling the American people to go to the mall while the country is at war is such a good idea. And I am completely bewildered by his unwillingness to secure the Mexican border. I don't like it that under President Bush, the Republican party mutated from being the limited government party to being the only slightly smaller than enormous government party.

On the other hand, he responded vigorously to Al-Qaeda's attack on America, both in America and abroad. The fact that there have been no further attacks on American soil is certainly not for lack of effort on Al-Qaeda's part. Osama bin Laden was expecting America to collapse like a tea-dunked biscuit after 9/11. President Bush proved him wrong.

He passed a substantial tax cut, he made an effort to save Social Security which was sabotaged by Democrats, he appointed two outstanding Supreme Court justices in John Roberts and Samuel Alito (can we just forget about Harriet Miers, please?)

Sometimes a president is critized for failing to confront certain issues, such as the presidents of the 1830's and 40's being criticized for failing to confront slavery. But President Bush has addressed the problems facing America. You may not like his solutions. You can already see that I don't like some of his solutions, but there were some things that were beyond his control.

By the way, the reason I'm using OpenID to comment instead of my Blogger account, is that Crossword Bebop has moved to its own domain, at http://crosswordbebop.com

Anonymous said...

I’m just wondering, under which UN resolution did the US brought this treatment to Iraqi civilians? In this video you hear Iraqi soldiers taunting arrestees and laughing at their Islamic belief, or may be reading their rights, they said

(How do you feel now you dogs and children of dogs? you want to go to heaven)?
Then, they display two dead bodies on their jeeps and drive round the city.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIyvMn68ttQ

Neil Clark said...

Thanks for your comment Douglas.
You say: "he (ie Bush) responded vigorously to Al-Qaeda's attack on America, both in America and abroad."
But in what way was attacking a secular Arab state like Iraq, which had no links to Al-Qa'eda and had nothing to do with 9/11, going to make the US safer?

dan: great to hear from you after quite an absence. Thanks for the link.

Anonymous said...

I like 'Wally of the Week' but seeing that the last 'Wally' was nominated on 17th April, wouldn't it be more accurate to call it 'Wally of Every Second Month'?

David Lindsay said...

Andrew Roberts makes great play of being an aristocrat, but is in fact the heir to a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise.

Finger Lickin' Good...

Anonymous said...

Andrew Roberts is even more repellent than Niall Ferguson, and nearly as creepy as Thatcher's favourite historian, Norman Stone. What have they all got in common? Regular appearances on the telly, radio and in the press. How to be a successful historian! Another argument for ending the tv licence fee.