COMMENT: Daniel Pipes comments on the human rights implications of the Iraq conflict ...

The head of a conservative think tank in Sydney once suggested to me that I should go easy on Daniel Pipes, a far-Right American-Israeli columnist and commentator on all-things Middle Eastern.

"Seriously, you and he have alot in common," the fellow said with a surprisingly straight face.

I wonder at why allegedly conservative think tanks and newspapers keep publishing Pipes' material. Is it that they share the same prejudices that he does? Is it because they regard him as an expert just because he is able to speak modern Arabic? Is it because he has a PhD from Harvard?

Who knows? In any event, Pipes has been a longstanding supporter of the war in Iraq. Recently I was sent an entry by American investigative journalist Ken Silverstein who cited the following insightful analysis which shows Mr Pipes' commitment to human rights in Iraq ...

Iraq’s plight is neither a coalition responsibility nor a particular danger to the West. Fixing Iraq is neither the coalition’s responsibility, nor its burden. When Sunni terrorists target
Shi’ites and vice versa, non-Muslims are less likely to be hurt. Civil war in Iraq, in short, would be a humanitarian tragedy, but not a strategic one.

Pipes wrote these words in a 2006 article published in the Jerusalem Post.

Words © 2007 Irfan Yusuf