Jeffrey Sachs vs Richard Haass

[Tracy Riddle]

Watching "Morning Joe" on MSNBC this morning, I was stunned to see some actual truth leak through. They had Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute and Richard Haass (ex-Bush admin, now with the CFR) arguing about the Middle East. Sachs articulated how the US and UK have been meddling in the Middle East for a century, the CIA overthrowing governments since the late 1940s, and how we have created the entire mess there. Haass tried weakly to disagree, saying how we had preserved stability in the region by stopping Saddam in 1991, and claimed that Middle Eastern leaders kept rejecting "modernity." Sachs knocked that back, saying that we keep overthrowing every government that wants to modernize.

It didn't last long, but it was pretty surprising.

[Magda Hassan]

Have to wonder if Jeffrey will be invited on to too many other shows though. But even momentary outbreaks of truth are a joy though. ::