(Video) Bill Maher and Ben Affleck get Schooled by Danielle Pletka
Terry Trippany on Oct 15 2006 at 9:25 am | Filed under: Feature Article, Liberalism Watch, That's Hollywood!
A huge hat tip goes to Noel Sheppard over at NewsBusters.org for pointing out the absolute schooling that Bill Maher and Ben Affleck received at the hands of Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute.
First of all let me say that Bill Maher shows how incredibly stupid he is by challenging Pletka when she said “over a million people died under Saddam Hussein”. Maher responded with the most incredulous “what ass did you pull that out of?” where she replied “the U.N. ass!”.
Even more incredible is that the U.N. estimate is probably an undercounting. More and more mass graves are being uncovered and the genocide trial of Saddam Hussein is opening the door to atrocities that have been ignored by this and other countries for well over a decade.
So for Bill Maher to get on his TV show and spout his bullshit from a foundation of ignorance is quite appalling. Why does anyone take this guy seriously?
You really have to watch each of these video clips to get a full understanding of what it would mean to have liberals in power. Pay special attention to Bill Maher’s rant about 4:50 in and again at the end. It really says it all.
Bill Maher and Ben Affleck get a History Lesson Courtesy of Danielle Pletka!
As if having Ben Affleck on the show as some sort of expert isn’t bad enough, the audience applauds in splendid lockstep whenever Maher or Affleck make the stupidest of comments. I know that the moral relativism of the left allows for the most ridiculous of comparisons such as comparing President Bush to Hitler or in this case Saddam Hussein. But really, if you are going to try and wash away the crimes of Saddam Hussein with this relative hogwash you should at least research the very accessible history and know the facts.
When Maher and Affleck try to imply that North Korea and Iran are more evil simply because President Bush called them evil Pletka sets them straight; and rightfully so.
Affleck tries as hard as possible to belittle Pletka with a snide clearing of his throat and his little girly impersonation when he rants about the “specter of terrorism” as if people shouldn’t be concerned about the threat of a nuclear armed North Korea. This is important because Affleck might one day be elected to Congress by star struck liberals in Massachusetts. Affleck’s claims that putting countries under the “axis of evil” label is somehow encouraging more terror is exactly the wrong message to send to murderous psychopathic dictators. These types look for that kind of weakness as an opportunity to hold others hostage to their threats.
These people say they want to kill us; the Ben Affleck’s of the world ignore that fact. These people export weapons to terrorists, have no problem starving their own people, and have killed thousands already. Now they want to arm themselves further with nuclear weapons and the Ben Affleck’s of the world say we should just talk. Sorry bud, you can’t simply have diplomatic discussions with nations that have a history of lying in those discussions every chance they get. How many threats do these people have to ignore before they wake the hell up?
There needs to be ramifications for making threats while actively pursuing the means to acquire weapons of mass destruction.
So the question for those on the left is “what happens when diplomacy fails?”. This is the question that none of them want to answer. Yet that is the most important question we need to have the answer to.
I have often said that we should watch the actions of the Daily Kos crowd because they are representative of the Democrat Party base. That statement has been challenged by many who want to distance themselves from the moonbat left. Ok, so let’s assume that this challenge is true; the Daily Koser’s are the far left and Maher and Affleck are center left. Does anyone realize how incredibly scary that is?
These guys don’t appear to understand anything about the history behind the rise of al Qaeda, North Korea and Iran or where diplomacy failed. Worse, this lack of context allows these people to preach to a larger audience that seems to know even less. This is a disaster.
I usually don’t watch Bill Maher anymore because there is only so much Bush bashing one can take. But the way Danielle Pletka stood up to these guys who tried to belittle her until they discovered she knew the facts was a long time coming. Great work!
You should read Noel Sheppard’s take on the segment. He has a transcript which when read adds even more clarity to what Danielle Pletka was saying.
Update: I wanted to add a note concerning some comments that have come my way in response to this video. The typical response I am getting from those who disagree with Danielle Pletka’s (and my) point of view is that she is talking out of her ass.
I think it is relevant to quote Noel Sheppard concerning Danielle’s credentials to put this into perspective.
Danielle Pletka is the vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at AEI. Her research areas include the Middle East, South Asia, terrorism, and weapons proliferation. While at AEI, Ms. Pletka has developed a conference series on rebuilding post-Saddam Iraq and a project on democracy in the Arab world. She recently served as a member of the congressionally-mandated Task Force on the United Nations, established by the United States Institute of Peace. Before coming to AEI, she served for ten years as a senior professional staff member for the Near East and South Asia on the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
I hardly think that Danielle Pletka is speaking out of ignorance; rather I think it is quite the opposite.
On the topic of Saddam’s crimes against humanity I commented about that issue many times; most recently in “Another Blow to the “Life Was Better under Saddam” Meme”“. Danielle Pletka is repeating facts that everyone except those who never bothered to look them up knows.
Which brings me to the point of this post and that of others on this blog. Bill Maher and Ben Affleck are attempting to influence politics in the United States by using their opposition to the Iraq war as a springboard for such purposes. If they are going to do that then they certainly should know the history of Saddam Hussein so many years after the War in Iraq began. I believe that Affleck is a bit more careful with the facts because he appears to have ambitions in the political arena as a politician. However I believe that Affleck’s statements on foreign policy should be a worry to those who think that defense and appeasement are two separate issues.
Bill Maher on the other hand flat out gets it wrong. He has a national audience that he preaches his message to and that is a disservice to those who may come to him for guidance; at least in this subject area. It is after all a talk show on politics.
The fact that Maher in particular doesn’t know the history of Saddam Hussein’s murderous reign speaks volumes.
Other Reading of Interest today:
Hot Air: Sunday shows open thread
Iraq
Ben Affleck, Danielle Pletka, American Enterprise Institute, Bill Maher, U.N., genocide, Saddam Hussein, liberals, North Korea, terrorism”, nuclear, Democrat Party, Iran, Bush, Iraq
[...] Thanks to Webloggin for providing the video. [...]
Bill Maher and Ben Affleck get a History Lesson Courtesy of Danielle Pletka!…
When Maher and Affleck try to imply that North Korea and Iran are more evil simply because President Bush called them evil Pletka sets them straight; and rightfully so.
……
Politely, Bill Maher and Ben Affleck are idiots. Both of them think that because of our invasion, we created sectarian violence between the Sunni and the Shia. Ahem…. No. People groups in this region of the world have been fighting for nearly 6,000 years. Just look at Saddam’s regime prior to the invasion: mass graves, Kurdish gassing, etc. Bill Maher is just another example of an angry liberal who doesn’t know where to properly aim his anger…so he defaults to President Bush.
It’s interesting to read hear how Pletka spanked Maher and Affleck. Her “facts” are questionable. Please cite what prestigious scientific organization has refuted the findings of JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health (one of the most prestigious schools in the US) findings published in the Lancet (one of the premier medical journals in the world). I have not seen any and beleive none exist to date. Bush saying it’s not credible is not a source, he is unqualified to comment, as I’m sure you’ll concede. All the right-wing spin saying it’s so doesn’t make it so. Also, cite when/where Ahmadinejad said he wants to destroy the US and where the UN reported a million dead at the hands of Hussein (maybe that includes the estimated 500,000 deaths resulting from the post ‘91 war sanctions). And let’s say Hussein did kill 1m people. Does this mitigate the huge number of civilian deaths directly related the the US invasion and occupation? Aren’t you setting the bar pretty low? Talk about moral relativism. No one contends Hussein’s a good guy. The question is did our invasion improve anything for Iraqi civilians or our security and what is the cost benefit analysis of our policies/actions? If you can’t see the connection between our Iraq policy and Iran/N. Korea actions you must be pretty thick. All of Pletka’s claims are specious. Maher and Affleck are “more” correct with their facts and their grasp of the impacts on the long term peace and stability of the world resulting from this foreign policy disaster. Does anyone not think the Iraq invasion was a mistake? When you can’t go around the world invading and overthrowing every despotic dictator you see as a threat (and clearly we can’t) then you have to negotiate with them. Diplomacy is the ONLY option, however undesirable it seems. And all this IS Bush’s fault, it was his flawed judgment and poor leadership that took us into Iraq and failed to secure a peace through security. Does “Commander-in-Chief” mean anything to you? Or maybe you all still think Saddam was behind 9-11…
Hi Paul,
While I appreciate your desire to want the lancet study to be true it simply isn’t. The lancet study was panned in 2004 and this time it is getting worse treatment. Try Iraq Body count for starters. They are no fan of the Bush administration and they summarily tear it apart. You really need to gather your facts before you try to pawn off the lancet study as some sort of respectable study.
Just because someone comes from a respectable school doesn’t make them respectable.
You can read commentary on the IBC response here.
Ahmadinejad has repeatedly threatened the United States directly and by proxy through Israel. If you seriously want to come here and try and disput that then the task is yours; I have done enough research on this topic to know that it is true although I am not sure that I can find a direct quote that says he wants to destroy the United States; they are more veiled.
For instance:
That keyword, protectors is a reference to the United States
Or perhaps this love note
You do realize that the international community and not just the United States want to prevent Ahmadinejad from getting nukes, right? I’d call this a threat. You can ignore it to your demise.
You said:
Really, I’m trying to be nice here:
Here are some references for you, and yes, adding in the count from the Iran-Iraq war brings the tally above 2 million dead.
Finally, you need to get your history right. Diplomacy didn’t work for North Korea throughout the 90’s. President Bush is seeking 6 way diplomatic international talks now; so you need to pick one instead of trying the Bush Derangement syndrome approach.
As far as Iraq goes you may think that ignoring the crimes against humanity under Saddam’s reign of terror was no big deal and you may even believe that life was better under him; you’d be wrong of course and the babies with the bullets in their heads are proof. Go look at the mass grave pictures I linked up.
BTW, you are aware that Saddam shipped ethnic Kurds to their mass graves aren’t you? No? Read up on these facts before you try and come here to tell me that life was better under a dictator who ran rape rooms, buried people alive, starved and gassed his own people and had no problem ordering the execution of babies simply because they were of the wrong ethnicity.
One final final note, the history of Iran and Iraq spans both the Republican and Democrat party going at least as far back as Carter. Somehow one half of the country is blind to this fact and it isn’t me. So please, spare me the lecture. Grow the fuck up.