It's Called Google, Glenn II - Updated

In July of 2003, I wrote this post about about Instapundit's lack of research before presumptuously posting a comment to slam someone, erroneously as it turned out.

Well, some things never change as Kevin Drum links to a post by Glenn Reynolds concerning this article in Newsweek about the possibility that the Defense Department may set up a series of death squad-like units in Iraq to fight the insurgency similar to those that existed in El Salvador during that country's civil war in the 1980's.

Ignoring for a moment the dangers of such a maneuver, Kevin points to this comment by Reynolds:

Now, NEWSWEEK has learned, the Pentagon is intensively debating an option that dates back to a still-secret strategy in the Reagan administration’s battle against the leftist guerrilla insurgency in El Salvador in the early 1980s. Then, faced with a losing war against Salvadoran rebels, the U.S. government funded or supported "nationalist" forces that allegedly included so-called death squads directed to hunt down and kill rebel leaders and sympathizers. Eventually the insurgency was quelled, and many U.S. conservatives consider the policy to have been a success—despite the deaths of innocent civilians and the subsequent Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal.

Er, maybe because the Iran-Contra scandal had to do with overthrowing the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, rather than the guerrilla war in El Salvador?  I mean, I know all those people look alike to the folks at Newsweek, but this is either inexcusable sloppiness, or simply a stretch to try to bring in more stuff that might make it look bad.

What all too typical utter lack of erudition on Reynolds' part. Does he not remember the ostensible reason for supporting the contras? It was to keep them from exporting their revolution to El Salvador among other places according to Reagan and his amen corner. A simple Google search would have shown this. Was he asleep during the 1980's? One wonders.

Not content to cluelessly fail to realize that the fear of the Reagan administration was the expansion of Nicaragua's revolution, but Glenn then blindly links to this op-ed by David Brooks which Marc Cooper tears apart here. Some unsolicited advice, Glenn: get out of your cocoon. The only "inexcusable sloppiness" here is yours.

As for the real problems that may arise from employing the "Salvador Option" in Iraq, I urge you to read this post by David Holiday.

UPDATE:

Glenn remains clueless with this update:

UPDATE:  Various lefty emailers, and some lefty bloggers are calling me an idiot for not recognizing that the struggle against communists in El Salvador and the struggle against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua were connected. Of course they were, and it's nice to see people admit that there really was a global struggle against communism, something that wasn't so readily admitted back in the day. But my point, as should be obvious, is that the Newsweek piece goes out of its way to drag in Iran/Contra, which had nothing to do with the El Salvador "death squads," which themselves have a rather tenuous relationship, at best, to what's going on in Iraq, so as to make Bush look bad. If the Newsweek story had offered that perspective, this defense might be worth something. But it didn't, because its goal was a cheap smear [ed. note Pot. Kettle. Black]. Bad publicity relating to Iran/Contra has nothing to do with Iraq, except for Newsweek's effort to tie the two together. [italicized text is mine]

Glenn needs to read Kevin Drum's post referenced above:

What's more, contra-resupply efforts were based at Ilopango air base in El Salvador, a fact that became public after Eugene Hasenfus' flight from Ilopango was shot down in 1986. The government denied that it was involved, of course, but Hasenfus and Ilopango — which was a center of U.S. support for both the Salvadoran government and the Nicaraguan contras — were nonetheless the early sparks that set the Iran-Contra investigation in motion in the first place.

Saying Iran-Contra had nothing to do with El Salvador is like saying that Shiloh had nothing to do with Antietam. It's one thing to be tendentious; it's another thing entirely to attempt to rewrite history.

Comments

[Geek, Esq.]

All together now:

Those who forget history . . .

[Roxanne]

Well, if you're gonna post 27 pull-quotes a day, accompanied by a one line analysis, AND teach a couple of law classes a week, you're gonna miss some relevant facts.

[David Sucher]

It's called "Insta-analysis" and Glenn is, presumably, proud of it.

[Randy Paul]

David,

That sounds like a synonym for dilettantism.