From the Vancouver Province (btw - 47 days till I'm home again!) comes this little Q&A excerpt with Michael Ignatieff:
Q: What do you say to people who accuse you of being an imperialist, a right-winger? Some critics in the Toronto Star are saying you’re soft on torture and so on — how do you answer those people who question your liberal credentials?
A: Read my books, actually read them.
Q: For those who don’t have time to read the books?
A: But hey, that’s what I object to. I’ve had three years of people taking quotations out of context on the torture issue, and conveniently missing pages of A Lesser Evil, which say things like, "Democracies have to fight terror with one hand tied behind their back, and they win because they keep one hand tied behind their back." They never quote that, right? So all I’m asking is for people to treat me with the respect I hope I treat them. Am I an imperialist? Never, never. I’m a
Canadian!
I've been writing for months now that the value of actually reading a book can go a long way in getting to understand what Michael Ignatieff thinks about the issues of our time. Granted, it won't help the dunderheads who insist on parroting Tory smear points or the left-wing wackos that think of Ignatieff as an apologist for torture and American Empire, but for people who are fair and honest with themselves and their political expressions, reading his books is a great thing to do. It seems like such a simple request, but nothing easy is ever simple, which is why I'm glad that the Province actually came out and asked him flat-out about this straw man that people have created.
2 comments:
So to get the truth and get some form of explanation from Ignatieff on his various hypocritical utterances and inconsistencies, all we have to do is actually fork out money to HIM by buying his book. Wow. Isn't that enlightening, LMAO.
It's unfortunate that you're not nearly as funny as you think you are. If twenty bucks is too high a price for truth over lies, blatant misrepresentation, and false innuendoes, may I suggest an alternative? There's this wonderful revolutionary new way that people that can access books for free. It's called a library.
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