Earlier today, Deacon noted that a left-wing academic named Juan Cole accused Iraq the Model of "astroturfing," i.e., being secretly funded by American "neoconservatives." This afternoon, Dafydd ab Hugh took Cole and Cole's source to task in an email. When Dafydd goes after a marginally talented lefty, the result isn't pretty. It's funny, though:

The charge of "astroturfing" against Iraq the Model begins to crumble the moment it's actually examined.

First, Professor Juan Cole -- who is a raving lefty I've encountered before, insisting (based on his "authority" as a professor of history) that Iraq had absolutely no connection whatsoever with any member of al-Qaeda -- did not originate the charge; it came from the aptly named website Martini Republic, http://martinirepublic.com/item/979 , run by one Joseph Mailander, who actually is one of those "anonymous bloggers" who won't tell you a thing about him:  "Who we are" is answered only by "Alex.  Laura.  Will.  Joseph," and that's all I can glean from the site.  (They invite readers to check their "history" to see who they are; the history comprises the dates of a series of meetings held between the principals at various local Los Angeles eateries.  As Ben Stein would say:  wow.)

It would be worthwhile to hear from the brothers, for instance, the story on how they decided to alight on a company near Abilene, Texas as their Internet Service Provider when they commenced their blog, six months after the initial "fall" of Baghdad.

Reading Martini Republic's charge against Mohammed, Omar, and Ali, the first thing I note is that Mr. Mailander cannot even keep his own charges straight.  First he claims that their internet service provider is from Abilene, Texas -- how would Mr. Mailander know who their ISP is?  Do you know who mine is?  The server part of the e-mail address on Iraq the Model's website is yahoo.com... to quote Stein again, "wow."

Mr. Mailander doesn't even tell us what this ISP is supposed to be, let alone how he knows that's who they used.  And it's inherently absurd, anyway... does he claim they have a dial-up connection to Texas?  Or does he claim that an Abilene-based cable company flew out to Baghdad to connect the brothers up?  Maybe the U.S. Army (see below) installed a T1 line leading straight into Texas.

Later, however, he changes the charge:

--Who was their contact for their unlikely Abiline, Texas domain host?

Wait... is Mr. Mailander charging them with having an Abilene ISP, or an "Abiline" domain host?  The sinister domain host they use, the one that raises such alarm bells is... blogspot.com!

Hm, that's a toughie:  why on earth would a first-time blogger pick blogspot.com and Blogger software for his blog?  There can only be one explanation:  they must be stalking horses for the United States government and the 490th Army Civil Reserve Unit!

MSM might also be able to confirm if the blog was facilitated in any way by the 490th Army Civil Reserve Unit, also based in Abilene,TX, which serviced Baghdad in 2003 at the same time the brothers started the blog.

The U.S. Government, as an NPR commentator recently wrote to Martini Republic, can be “one hell of a press agent.” Does the Government, or people closely connected to Pentagon strategists, have a shadow role in promoting this particular “Spirit of America” tour? Why is the Wall Street Journal so interested in these particular Iraqi bloggers, and not, say, Riverbend?

This is the silliest part of this whiny rant.  It appears that Mailander's real objection is that Iraq the Model is so much more respected -- and did so much better in the Wizbang Webbies -- than Riverbend, a stupid site run by a privileged and pampered princess who was almost assuredly from a Ba'athist family, and who spends all her time complaining about how much better everything was when Saddam was in charge, and the lower classes (Shi'a, Kurds, and everyone not a Ba'athist) knew their places.  Oh and by the way:  Riverbend -- actually, the title of the website is Baghdad Burning -- has the following URL:  http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/ !

Other questions are not likely to be addressed by the blogging bros this weekend:

--Were these bloggers prompted by invasion forces to start their blog?

--Who was their contact for their unlikely Abiline, Texas domain host?

--Are the brothers now or have they ever been in any kind of American pay (beyond the largesse of their rightwing PayPal contributors)? --And most importantly: why are We, the People of the United States, being invited (by our President, no less!) to care so much about what these particular brothers think, when polls out of Iraq indicate that their blog has historically run far, far outside of Iraqi mainstream thinking?

And most important to Mr. Mailander... what's the frequency, Kenneth?

By the way, the link above showing "Iraqi mainstream thinking" in fact refers to this ancient poll:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22403-2004May12.html

This was a poll "taken in Baghdad and several other Iraqi cities in late March and early April, shortly before the surge in anti-coalition violence and a few weeks before the detainee-abuse scandal became a major issue for the U.S. authorities in Iraq."  The Post doesn't tell us what those "other Iraqi cities" might be... Fallujah?  Ramadi?  Tikrit?  But it's pretty clear that rather than showing that "[f]our out of five Iraqis report holding a negative view of the U.S. occupation authority and of coalition forces," at most what it shows is that 80% of Iraqis living in the Sunni Triangle held such views nine months ago.

And even if it were true that the brothers were "far, far outside of Iraqi mainstream thinking," so what?  I guarantee that I'm far outside the American mainstream -- yet when I start my blog next year, would it really be credible to charge that this proves I'm actually funded by some think tank, federal agency, or perhaps the entire 490th Army Civil Reserve Unit?

The whole Mailander charge is utterly absurd, unsourced, and self-contradictory.  And the fact that Professor Juan Cole seizes upon Mr. Mailander's accusation tells us much about Professor Cole's own ability to distinguish logical argument from hysterical chair-jumping and evidence from loud assertion.  If this is similar to the "evidence" Cole uses to conclude that there was no connection of any kind between Hussein and al-Qaeda, then I think I was right to dismiss him a year and a half ago as an academic crank.

The ref stopped the fight; it's a TKO.

UPDATE: Jeff Jarvis has more.

Posted by John at 07:47 PM  |    |  

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