Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Friend and Mine, Michael Ledeen

by publius

Michael Ledeen, NRO today (discussing attempt of Pakistani radical mosque leader to escape from authorities by dressing in a burqa):

[J]ust look at this guy, a typical blowhard inciting his followers to martyrdom, who cross dresses and tries to sneak out the alley, leaving his followers to their doom.

Michael Ledeen, NRO, 11/4/2006:

I do not feel "remorseful," since I had and have no involvement with our Iraq policy. I opposed the military invasion of Iraq before it took place and I advocated—as I still do—support for political revolution in Iran as the logical and necessary first step in the war against the terror masters.

Michael Ledeen, NRO, 8/6/2002

So it's good news when Scowcroft comes out against the desperately-needed and long overdue war against Saddam Hussein and the rest of the terror masters. . . . One can only hope that we turn the region into a cauldron, and faster, please. If ever there were a region that richly deserved being cauldronized, it is the Middle East today. If we wage the war effectively, we will bring down the terror regimes in Iraq, Iran, and Syria, and either bring down the Saudi monarchy or force it to abandon its global assembly line to indoctrinate young terrorists.

(Hat tip to Eric Martin for the Ledeen links).

Comments

[rilkefan]

Sorry, entirely off-topic first thread comment, but we can all use a laugh:

Continental also has a new system that sends e-mail messages — and, beginning next month, text messages to cellphones — informing connecting passengers on late flights how they have been rebooked.

[...]

The system, however, rebooks people on the next available flight with a confirmed open seat and that is not always as soon as people might expect. Some are told their new departure is in three days.

“That causes them to go berserk,” said David Grizzle, a senior vice president at Continental.

[Randy Paul]

What I find astonishing about Ledeen - aside from his obvious nuttiness - is that for someone who claims to be an expert on the Middle East, he speaks neither Arabic nor Farsi.

[Randy Paul]

What I find astonishing about Ledeen - aside from his obvious nuttiness - is that for someone who claims to be an expert on the Middle East, he speaks neither Arabic nor Farsi.

[Randy Paul]

What I find astonishing about Ledeen - aside from his obvious nuttiness - is that for someone who claims to be an expert on the Middle East, he speaks neither Arabic nor Farsi.

[Randy Paul]

What I find astonishing about Ledeen - aside from his obvious nuttiness - is that for someone who claims to be an expert on the Middle East, he speaks neither Arabic nor Farsi.

[Randy Paul]

What I find astonishing about Ledeen - aside from his obvious nuttiness - is that for someone who claims to be an expert on the Middle East, he speaks neither Arabic nor Farsi.

[Randy Paul]

What I find astonishing about Ledeen - aside from his obvious nuttiness - is that for someone who claims to be an expert on the Middle East, he speaks neither Arabic nor Farsi.

[Randy Paul]

Really sorry about that I was just trying to get to the main page by hitting the back button.

[Hartmut]

Oh, no mention of the Ledeen Doctrine?
Btw, wikipedia also has a few Ledeen quotes (including two of the above).

[cleek]

i like people like Ledeen.

they make me feel smart and well-adjusted.

[Anderson]

Jeez, Publius, why do you incite us to violate the posting rules?

[Jay Jerome]

Michael Ledeen is a crazy sonofabitch about a lot of things I don't agree with, but when he talks about radical Islam and the clerics who promote it, he's right on.

His July 4th post you linked to and quoted is on point. In fact, the cleric who was busted while trying to escape disguised as a woman is a 'blowhard inciting his followers to martyrdom" who tried to duck out of harms way, leaving others behind. Getting caught in drag as he did, is worthy of caricature (like snickering at the Giuliani in drag photos and videos) If you can't laugh at the ignobly comical image of this fat pot-bellied coward getting caught among a group of women in burqas after a policeman noticed 'something suspicious' about one of them (is that an uzi in your burqa, big boy, or are you happy to see me?) and jumped on him and saw 'the burqa came off and his beard fell out' the humor in American Gothic is probably more your style.

Scurrilously savaging pompous fools in print is a noble Western historical tradition, especially when the scum-suckers deserve it. The Regency caricaturists like Gillray, and Cruikshank and Rowlandson would have had a gleeful field day with the image of this hateful cleric, trying to lam out of danger, under a woman's robe.

Aziz, and his movement, deserve all the acid poured on them. They're a disgusting lot propagating hateful distorted religious philosophies, infecting the world with their ugly vehemence. Pakistan's government was forced to act against these paragons of Islamic theology after they had gone on an 'anti-vice' crusade in the city, abducting people they accused of running brothels, including seven Chinese woman who were operating a message parlor; plus they raided local stores and shops selling music and video DVDs (death to Shrek), and issued a fatwa against a female Pakistani cabinet minister who had hugged a man in public who wasn't her husband (no huggy-huggy kissy-face decadent western-style human touching in Islamabad). This after Kalashnikov-carrying female students from the mosque took over a government-run children's library (death to Peter Rabbit, Death to Harry Potter), and after they openly called for Musharraf's assassination.

By the way, this is the same radical Islamic 'learning' center that had admitted to having sympathetic contacts with leaders of al-Queda pre 9/11, including Bin Laden; the same clerics who continue vociferous calls for Jihad against the U.S., the same ones who ululated for the death of the Danish cartoonists, the death of Jews, Zionists, Westerners, Non-Believers, Homosexuals, and Tinkerbelle (ok, I'm extrapolating on that one) .

The only criticism I can see anyone tossing at Ledeen for describing these Islamic-style hardliners as 'vile misanthropes, and 'blowhards' is that he needs to metaphorically sharpen up his pen point and mix a more acidic concentration of ink to describe them.

[Anderson]

Jay, way to miss the ENTIRE POINT OF THE POST.

[rilkefan]

Btw, good stuff in comments at Volokh&Co re the Libby pardon, Anderson.

[Jay Jerome]

"Jay, way to miss the ENTIRE POINT OF THE POST."

If I did (won't be the first time I misunderstood something) I apologize..

But I assumed the point of publius' post was that you couldn't rely on anything Ledeen wrote because he was unreliable (saying one thing in 2002, backtracking later) and way over the top (wanting to cauldronize the mid-east to bring down the terror regimes there...)

[Gromit]

No, the point of the post is that Ledeen, too, is a radical mosque leader dressed in drag. Metaphorically speaking.

[Model 62]

The point, I think, is that M. Ledeen lacks the courage of his convictions, like that cross-dressing imam.

[Steve]

I disagree with Jay. I think the Pakistani radical mosque leader is a good guy and I'm pretty sure everyone here feels the same way. I do respect his courageous, contrarian stance, though.

[BigHank53]

If Ledeen thought his lily-white ass was at risk he'd kick your mother in the head and steal her burqa. He's not even willing to let his reputation take any bruises.

[Batocchio]

As some blogger observed, Ledeen complains about being mispresented quite often, but it seems the culprit is always Ledeen himself.

[John Spragge]

Taking Ledeen apart has devolved into a sport about as exciting as shooting (large) fish in a (small) barrel.

[J Thomas]

The difference is, no matter how many times you shoot Ledeen, and no matter how many times Ledeen shoots himself in the foot, the barrel is still chockfull of Ledeen.

Ledeen gives the appearance of being just as influential as he ever was.

Perhaps that was always Ledeen's role. Like an internet troll. No matter how many times you fisk him, he pops right back with the same old trolling, as if nothing had happened. Maybe his role all along was to draw fire.