Juan Williams is a Jerk

Well he is. I remember coming to this conclusion after listening to his appearance once on Air America's The Al Franken Show, back in 2006. He was there pubbing his book Enough--yet another salvo from the Bill Cosby and Larry Elder crew, in which black America is dressed-down for numerous failings. But Williams got more than he bargained for, as Franken questioned some of his basic premises, as well as his associates at FOX News. Williams became defensive, especially when simple questions stumped him. Historian Peniel E. Joseph probably summed up the problems with Williams, his book, and his ilk, with the following review:

More than 40 years later, prophets such as Baldwin have all but vanished from intellectual discourse, replaced by a chorus of commentators whose gaze has turned decidedly inward. Lacking the political courage and personal compassion to confront the racism, segregation, poverty and violence that so disturbed Baldwin, these post-civil rights critics observe that, for black people, the enemy is us.

It seems however that at the least, Williams "blame-the-victim" routine doesn't end with black folks. In his role of "senior black correspondent" on FOX News, Williams appeared on the O'Reilly Factor to help condemn Iraqi journalist and shoe-thrower Muntader al-Zaidi, and by way all Iraqis, as unappreciative "ingrates."

But on a serious level, how many American lives have been sacrificed to the cause of liberating Iraq? How much money has been spent while they’re not spending their own profits from their oil? American money. So I just think it’s absolutely the act of an ingrate for them to behave in this way. Just unbelievable to me.

And yet Mr. Williams' reaction--given his track record--doesn't seem so unbelievable at all. This notion that the Iraqis are "ungrateful wretches" has been part of a bipartisan American political mantra adopted long ago, something I've touched on in more than one blog. In a page right out of Imperialism and Colonialism 101, the natives are supposed to smile, grin, scrape and give thanks for being "liberated"--at the barrel of a gun. And, like a modern day Gunga Din, the likes of Juan Williams answer the call to hold up that White Man's Burden. Williams had best hope, that when all is said and done, it doesn't end as badly for him as it did poor Gunga.

A more detailed account from ThinkProgress on Juan Williams and all the Iraqis should be "thankful" for below.


Juan Williams: Iraqi Protesters Are ‘Ingrate[s]’ Who Should Appreciate U.S. Invasion

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/16/williams-iraqi-ingrates/

Last night on “The O’Reilly Factor,” host Bill O’Reilly slammed Muntader al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush, and said that if he had been there, he “would have physically taken the guy down.” Guest Juan Williams agreed, but he widened his condemnation to Iraqis in general, who he said were behaving like “ingrate[s]” for not appreciating what the United States has done for them:

WILLIAMS: But on a serious level, how many American lives have been sacrificed to the cause of liberating Iraq? How much money has been spent while they’re not spending their own profits from their oil? American money. So I just think it’s absolutely the act of an ingrate for them to behave in this way. Just unbelievable to me.

Last month, National Review’s Andy McCarthy was similarly frustrated by Iraqis’ failure to shower their occupiers with thanks and gratitude:

Thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions in taxpayer funds have been expended to provide Iraqis the opportunity to live freely. And this despite the facts that (a) the U.S. interest in Iraqi democracy remains tenuous…and (b) Americans were assured, when the nation-building enterprise commenced, that oil-rich Iraq would underwrite our sacrifices on its behalf. Yet, to be blunt, the Iraqis remain ingrates. That stubborn fact complicates everything.

Even President Bush is confused about Iraqis’ frustration, telling Bob Woodward, “I don’t understand that the Iraqis are not appreciative of what we’ve done for them.” Woodward explained, “He thinks we’ve done this magnificent thing for them. I think he still holds to that position.”

An Oxfam report from February 2008 put into startling focus what the U.S. invasion has really meant for Iraqis:

– More than four million Iraqis forced to flee either to another part of Iraq or abroad.
– Four million Iraqis regularly cannot buy enough food.
– 70 percent are without adequate water supplies, compared to 50 percent in 2003.
– 28 percent of children are malnourished, compared to 19 percent before the 2003 invasion.
– 92 percent of Iraqi children suffer learning problems, mostly due to the climate of fear.

The Brookings Institute’s Iraq index also notes that the national unemployment rate is somewhere between 25 and 40 percent. Fifty-six percent of Iraqis say things in Iraq are going “quite bad” or “very bad.” Sixty percent rate economic conditions as “poor” and 75 percent rate security conditions “poor.”