-
We note for the record that Sullivan included both yours truly and Sontag in his infamous lie that: "The middle part of the country--the great red zone that voted for Bush--is clearly ready for war. The decadent left in its enclaves on the coasts is not dead--and may well mount a fifth column,” when he added, “These people have already openly said they do not support such a war, and will oppose it. Read Sontag and Chomsky and Moore and Alterman and on and on, and you'll see that I'm not exaggerating.” The only problem is that neither Sontag nor I ever opposed a military response to Al Qaida in Afghanistan. I certainly never said so, as the little liar proclaims, and I will offer a thousand bucks to the charity of Andy’s choice—including the re-remodeling of his P-town bathroom--if he can prove I did. Andy just made that up.
A fifty percent rate of accuracy is not high enough when you’re accusing people of treason fella. Sullivan is right he was not “exaggerating.” He was lying. He still is. America will be a better country without his blog, but I, for one, will mourn the loss of material.
In the aftermath of 9/11, Sullivan not being content with the actual enemies we had, decided to go hunting for more. He pioneered the use of 9/11 to crush dissent - not the "fifth column" of his feverish imagination, but any critical look (except for his) at the post-9/11 response. Sullivan helped mainstream the notion, once thought utterly un-American, that critical voices are tantamount to treason.
Plenty of people went a bit nuts after 9/11 and said stupid things, but most of them don't proudly display those worst moments as one of their greatest hits (note the dishonest after the fact editing).