IP: last of Andrew Sullivan and Ken Layne react to the Robert Fisk incident

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

> From: "John Fulton" <jfulton@westcapital.com>
> To: "David Farber" <farber@cis.upenn.edu>
>
> http://andrewsullivan.com/
>
> ...[Fisk] goes on: ?There were all the Afghan men and boys who had attacked
> me who should never have done so but whose brutality was entirely the
> product of others?? Notice that phrase ­ ?whose brutality was entirely the
> product of others.? What can that possibly mean? We?re not talking about
> extenuating circumstances ­ things that might help us understand or
> contextualize the hatred of one people for another. We?re talking about a
> priori moral absolution. Take this passage: ?Goddamit, I said and tried to
> bang my fist on my side until I realised it was bleeding from a big gash on
> the wrist ­ the mark of the tooth I had just knocked out of a man's jaw, a
> man who was truly innocent of any crime except that of being the victim of
> the world.? No, Mr. Fisk, that man who attacked you was not truly innocent
> of any crime. You were. He was not the victim of the world. You were the
> victim of a thieving, violent mob...
>
> ***
>
> http://kenlayne.com/
> Sunday, December 09, 2001
>
> Here's the Long Version of the exciting Fisk incident, in which Fisk reveals
> that he was mugged:
>
> "Then another kid tried to grab my bag. It contained my passport, credit
> cards, money, diary, contacts book, mobile phone. I yanked it back and put
> the strap round my shoulder. Justin and I crossed the road and someone
> punched me in the back."
>
> You have to read about a hundred whining paragraphs about the Evil of the
> West before you get to the actual explanation of what happened. His car
> broke down. Some thugs tried to take his bag. He put up some kind of feeble
> struggle, and they beat him up.
>
> The smart reader who sent me this link wrote, "As I thought, he just got
> mugged." Yep ... white boy breaks down in a bad neighborhood. The End.

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