Teaching Shame to the Shameless

LA Observed notices right-wing columnist Jonah Goldberg’s offer to lay a thousand bucks on Iraq’s prospects in a public spat with Prof. Juan Cole: “I predict that Iraq won’t have a civil war, that it will have a viable constitution, and that a majority of Iraqis and Americans will, in two years’ time,” Goldberg wrote on February 8, 2005, “agree that the war was worth it. I’ll bet $1,000 … Money where your mouth is, doc.”

Now Goldberg won’t pay up, because Professor Cole spat on the bet and even said it filled him with “disgust and grief” that a spoiled media type like Goldberg would try to lay money on the lives of Iraqis. I think that’s fair. Goldberg’s bet was rejected; he doesn’t owe a cent.

But Goldberg’s crowing, belligerent column wasn’t just about cash. In fact he went on for paragraphs in a defensive key about how his knowledge and expertise on Iraq may not measure up to the attainments of a Professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History, which is Cole’s title, but he does have better “judgment,” which as Cole pointed out sounded oddly like code for “I am politically correct.” (Remember the American right invented political correctness.) After a full page of insulting ad hominem attacks about how ad hominem and insulting Juan Cole could be, Goldberg was crystal clear about the stakes. Let’s read that wager in full.

I do think my judgment is superior to his when it comes to the big picture. So, I have an idea: Since he doesn’t want to debate anything except his own brilliance, let’s make a bet. I predict that Iraq won’t have a civil war, that it will have a viable constitution, and that a majority of Iraqis and Americans will, in two years time, agree that the war was worth it. I’ll bet $1,000 (which I can hardly spare right now). This way neither of us can hide behind clever word play or CV reading. If there’s another reasonable wager Cole wants to offer which would measure our judgment, I’m all ears. Money where your mouth is, doc.

One caveat: Because I don’t think it’s right to bet on such serious matters for personal gain, if I win, I’ll donate the money to the USO. He can give it to the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade or whatever his favorite charity is.

Right now poor Goldberg is being flooded with angry left-wing e-mail about how he needs to kick down a thousand bucks to the USO just for posing the bet. I disagree — the man can do what he likes with his blood money — but people of all persuasions should drown him in e-mail insisting on something else, which must come much harder to Goldberg. He needs to admit, not just that he’s been occasionally wrong, but that his judgment has failed; in fact he went down on this self-imposed test of judgment in a grand, stinking, very public ball of flame.

     posted 9 February 2007 by Michael Scott Moore

  1. Nice call out, Mike.

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    — E    Feb 10, 02:56 am    #