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March 11, 2009
It's the Allah, stupid
Robert Kaplan has a go at Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat and the "brightest star" in the BJP. For all I know, Modi may be completely reprehensible but with Kaplan keeping The Atlantic's Sullivanesque editorial line in mind this is not the article to convince me. For example, Kaplan makes a couple drive by comparisons of Modi with Adolph Hitler only to half-heartedly dismiss them. This is not just a problem for Godwin's Law; it is Sartrian "bad faith" passing for journalism.
There is a recurring trope - one I had thought dead - in Kaplan's argument. It is difficult to say if his assessment of Gujarat or the legacy of the Mahatma beats the equivalent Wikipedia entries (though once suspects their content to be eerily similar) but one gem of socialist editorializing stands out.
It gets worse. This is the Kipling of today's United States military? Kaplan forgot to throw in global warming/"it's all about oil"/some such other canard. Though I suppose what was published was already more than enough apologetics for one subordinate clause. In Obama's America, we are back to "globalization" as the pre-9/11 intellectual grievance of choice. Inshallah.
Posted by Ghost of a flea at March 11, 2009 07:23 AM
