Crossfire Meets C-Span, on the Web

If you’ve been waiting, as I have, for an intelligent, focused and spirited debate about invading Iraq, your wait is over. No, it’s not occurring in the halls of Congress or in the opinion pages of The New York Times or on CNN in non-primetime hours. It’s taking place at Slate, the online magazine, which has begun a “dialogue” among its writers. The series got off to a snoozy start but anti-invasion offerings by Robert Wright (you’ll need to scroll down to it) and others led to a withering rebuke from Jeffrey Goldberg (again, you’ll need to scroll down to it), to which Wright shot back (scroll once more), eliciting another salvo from Goldberg, to which Steve Chapman took immediate exception. It’s smart and riveting stuff; I don’t know of any place where you’ll find sharper arguments in favor of, and against, an invasion of Iraq.

Author: Peter Maass

I was born and raised in Los Angeles. In 1983, after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, I went to Brussels as a copy editor for The Wall Street Journal/Europe. I left the Journal in 1985 to write for The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, covering NATO and the European Union. In 1987 I moved to Seoul, South Korea, where I wrote primarily for The Washington Post. After three years in Asia I moved to Budapest to cover Eastern Europe and the Balkans. I spent most of 1992 and 1993 covering the war in Bosnia for the Post. View all posts by Peter Maass