I saw Thursday's episode of the BBC show "Hard Talk" -- it features a FoxNews-style interviewer, Tim Sebastian, who uses a direct, very verbally aggressive style with his interviewees.   (I've been in Europe again for most of this week.   Regular blog fans -- not saying I have any -- can probably discern this by the sharp drop off in posting activity  ;-)

Although I commend the BBC for moving into "edgier" territory, I find Sebastian's style a bit lacking in intellectual substance -- stuff like:   (not a direct quote...)

"So do you think the US is grounded in going after Iraq for Weapons of Mass Destruction"

"Absolutely, a guy like Saddam shouldn't be trusted with them"

"But what about a guy like George Bush?"

Blah... we've heard that line of argument before and, as clever as the rhetoric is, it isn't exactly the height of intellectualism (actually, the rhetoric -- albeit clever -- in this case isn't even original...  The Bush vs. Saddam comparisons have been going on for over a year now folks).   Was it Voltaire who said "clever sayings prove nothing?"

Well, in any case, the guy was recently interviewing an American congressman from New York (I believe he was Pete King, from NY) & asked him about whether War in Iraq was justified.    The congressman said "unfortunately, yes - if it comes to that".    The Sebastian responded "well what about those critics such as the French who say 'war is never justified'"

The congressman's response was beautiful in it's directness and simplicity.   He said (I'm paraphrasing from memory mightily here):

I disagree strongly.   There are cases where war is the only solution to oppression and wrong-doing.  There are cases even in French history were the French were better off as a result of resorting to violence to solve their problems.  

Sebastian tried to use his "deflect with an analogy" trick and ask "does this mean the Palestinians are correct in their use of force against the Israeli's?"   The congressman also responded beautifully (and again, I'm hugely paraphrasing) --

The Israeli's want nothing more than a strong, prosperous, Palestinian state so long as it doesn't keep attacking Israel.   The Palestinians may have had a case for violence prior to Oslo or even the Clinton brokered accords but they keep sending in suicide bombers and Israel has been forced into incursion into their territory to make the attacks happen.