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Update: The Daily Globe and Mail slams Maclean’s. (Hat tip – reader Janine).
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When your left-wing magazine is in need of some quick buzz and a cheap circulation boost, what do you do? Go for the easy Bush-bashing photoshop, of course. See MacLean’s (and, yes, they managed to squeeze Britney up in the top, left-hand corner, too):
The writer of the Canadian magazine’s cover piece is one Patrick Graham, who used to chill with Iraqi jihadists and Saddamite thugs before they went and started cooperated with American soldiers. Jules Crittenden, bless his heart, took the time to read Graham’s diatribe so you don’t have to:
Patrick Graham’s article doesn’t appear to actually say Bush is the new Saddam … maybe I missed it, this thing rattles on at great length … though he suggests Bush is responsible for the ethnic violence and is playing one group off against the other. A somewhat cynical and myopic take, when you consider the role played by Saddam, al-Qaeda, people like al-Sadr and Iran in inflaming ethnic violence, in the latter cases with the specific goal of undermining the Americans.
Within all the “Iraq is all effed up” he seems agrees with Bush that Iran is a real problem. He also appears to acknowledge that post-Saddam, massive ethnic violence in Iraq was inevitable. But the turning of tribes against al-Qaeda is all some kind of American propaganda, because al-Qaeda never really existed. Graham is at a bit of a loss, because his old pals aren’t with him anymore, he can’t really go with al-Qaeda … they’d cut his head off, if they didn’t get killed by the Americans before they had a chance to do that … and he doesn’t seem to have much time for Shiites. Rattles on at some length about the Balkans, and suggests turning different ethnic groups against their extremist elements, to the side of law and order, is a bad Balkan idea. Something he noticeably fails to do, which is pretty pathetic for someone who’s spent a great deal of time in Iraq, has friends there, and presents himself as an expert, is appear to give much of a damn about the Iraqis and their fate … except as an opportunity to bash the Americans … or whether they are worth trying to save, and whether that might in fact be happening.
Now, compare that crap to the illuminating, on-the-ground online reporting from Bill Ardolino and Michael Totten and Michael Yon. See also Bill’s tribute to an amazing Marine.
This is why magazines are dying.
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Speaking of magazine obituaries, Bob Owens marks TNR’s Scott Thomas Beauchamp disgrace.


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