Here's a few passages re Stephen Vincent's relation to America's (imagined) left. The graphs below are excerpted from a response to a (condescending) letter by THE NATION's Victor Navasky who was, in turn, responding to a piece about THE NATION, Said and Makiya that was published in FIRST OF THE MONTH. That piece - "With Friends Like These" may be of some interest to folks who appreciated Stephen Vincent's moral example. It's available online at firstofthemonth.org - under the War On Terror Category...

When the murderous misogynist Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi army battled the American military (and terrorized civilians) before and after the handover of sovereignty in Iraq last year, Nation columnist Naomi Klein repeatedly made the case for Sadr. One Klein piece, headlined “Bring Najaf to New York,” urged the American left to take their cues from Sadr’s militia. Thanks to the independent journalist Stephen Vincent, we can find out what that new model army has done for us lately:

"Outraged at the sight of [700 young students in Basra] picnicking, listening to music and freely intermingling--worse, many women were not wearing hejab--between 20-40 of Sadr's blackshirts attacked the fete with guns, sticks and heavy electrical cables, injuring and robbing several, hauling at least 10 away in pick-up trucks.

The assault triggered several days of protests by students and their families, who demanded an apology and the disbanding of the school's morality police. Surprised at the public outcry, Sadr's office issued an apology--of sorts. "There was a mistake in our execution, but we had the right to intervene," said Mr. Jabari."

Vincent’s parsing of these events beats the hell out of The Nation’s “nuanced” approach to evil in Iraq:

"Oppression thrives in secret; exposure to the light of public scrutiny reveals the true face of illegitimate power and constellates perhaps the most potent and revolutionary reaction to its brutality--revulsion. No doubt many Basrans and Iraqis view Sadr's actions as necessary, if not admirable. But most, I'll wager, interpret the sight of masked armed men publicly beating helpless students--helpless female students--as despicable, contemptible, pathetic. The noble and strong do not act this way; the craven and cowardly do. Cravenness, cowardice--these are taboo, psychic stains to be avoided. Despite being armed with guns, truncheons and public sentiment that was hostile to civil rights, the reactionaries lost on the day that Bull Connor unleashed his dogs on peaceful marchers of Birmingham. Moqtada al-Sadr has taken another step into the barren wastes of Connor Country. It will take time, but he, like the Alabama sheriff and his ilk, will shrivel and die as well."

Navasky has not been responsive to efforts to apply lessons of the American Civil Rights Movement to situations in Iraq. (Viet Nam, of course, is the preferred template at The Nation.) But Stephen Vincent is beyond anyone’s ironic dismissal now. He was murdered last month on the streets of Basra after writing an op-ed piece in the New York Times exposing assassinations committed by Sadr-ites and other Shiite extremists who have infiltrated that city’s Police Department. Vincent wrote for a number of American publications including The Christian Science Monitor, The National Review, The Wall Street Journal. He never published in The Nation. His heroic reporting (like Kanan Makiya’s journalism) wouldn’t have fit. He was outside The Nation’s (the enemy is U.S.) consensus.