Re: "The French have a lot of Gaul" (George Jonas) March 5

It is often tempting to respond to the ramblings of Post columnists like George Jonas and Mark Steyn, but there is little point. They are dogmatists. They are so convinced of the self-evident truth of the views they endorse that they just dismiss the possibility that someone might sincerely disagree (unless, I suppose, they were suffering from a head injury or the like). Instead they attribute dissent to hidden motives or character flaws -- feelings of rivalry with the US -- or they just engage in name calling. Saddamites? That hurts Mark. On the rare occasion when they do provide arguments, they take the need to do so to be so minimal that the results are invariably embarrassments. Jonas claims, for example, that it is impossible to oppose war in Iraq for fear of the civilian casualties that would ensue because "Saddam has been the cause of more civilian casualties than anyone in the region." Er, um, George, the fear is that a war would result in the deaths of other civilians, lots of them, and not the people Hussein has killed already.

The reason so many of us lefty types, or Saddamites if you prefer, object to the editorial pages of the Post is not the conservative tone. (Note: aside from the editorial pages the Post is excellent -- I'm a subscriber.) It's the dogmatism -- the indifference to the canons of reason and good argument -- that permeates so many of the opinions. But lest I be accused of hasty generalization, or the argumentum ad Steyn-um as I like to call it, let me say that I don't think that all Post columnists are guilty of this charge. Andrew Coyne, though conservative, thinks he needs to give reasons for his views and often does so with considerable skill. And I bet if offered a good argument in response, he might even concede a point or two.

Peter Alward
Lethbridge, Alberta

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