From time to time, we’ve suggested that the Chronicle editorial board refrain from topics on which they have no special expertise, such as international politics.
Otherwise, unfortunate gaffes can occur, such as the time the editorial board conjured up a nonexistent treaty.
Today, another one got away from the idealists:
After decades of bloody civil war and de facto partitioning of the country by Syrian and Israeli forces, the government of Lebanon has regained sovereignty over its territory, and with it the chance to re-establish a peaceful, multiethnic, multireligion democracy in the Middle East.
Note the implied moral equivalence of the “de facto partitioning of the country by Syrian and Israeli forces.”
But the two nations aren’t morally equivalent. For years, Lebanon was a client/staging state for Syrian-sponsored terrorism. Lebanon didn’t exercise sovereignty because it was a satellite of Syria.
Israel certainly is not opposed to a peaceful, democratic Lebanon. But Lebanon was neither peaceful nor democratic when under Syria’s sway. That’s pretty much the end of the story.
Maybe we’ve been wrong in our past criticism of the Chronicle editorial board. Maybe they should do more Editorial LiveJournals, because they sure have trouble with anything more serious.
Laurence Simon wasn’t impressed with the editorial either.
