Back peddling From the Enemy at Home

Dinesh D’Souza takes exception to the harsh reviews of his book:

As a conservative author, I’m used to a little controversy. Even so, the reaction to my new book, “The Enemy at Home,” has felt, well, a little hysterical. “Ratfink writes new book,” James Wolcott, cultural critic for Vanity Fair, declares in his blog. He goes on to call my book a “sleazy, shameless, ignorant, ahistorical, tendentious, meretricious lie” … Why the onslaught? Just this: In my book, published this month, I argue that the American left bears a measure of responsibility for the volcano of anger from the Muslim world that produced the 9/11 attacks.

Since D’Souza mentions Wolcott, take a look at his review. Wolcott documents the dishonesty of this book. He also notes that D’Souza starts by saying the Left was responsible for 9/11 but then proceeded to qualify his theme. Garance Franke-Ruta, however, reminds us of how the Heritage Foundation advertised this book:

Dinesh D’Souza provocatively posits that the cultural left and its allies in Congress, the media, Hollywood, the nonprofit sector, and the universities are the primary cause of the volcano of anger toward America that is erupting from the Islamic world.

Can these guys make up their mind – as “primary cause” sounds a lot different than “bears a measure of responsibility”? D’Souza also whines about personal attacks forgetting that he and his National Review colleagues personally attack others on a routine basis. If D’Souza’s book is the “sleazy, shameless, ignorant, ahistorical, tendentious, meretricious lie” that those who had to waste their time reviewing it (I refuse to read poorly written fiction), why is the Washington Post giving D’Souza a forum to defend his hate-filled dishonesty?

Update: Brad Plumer has more:

Shouldn’t D’Souza have at least a passing familiarity with debates about terrorism before writing a book on the subject? Guess not. He writes: “Bin Laden isn’t upset because there are U.S. troops in Mecca, as liberals are fond of saying. (There are no U.S. troops in Mecca.)” But no one has claimed this. The grievance in question, which bin Laden has made perfectly explicit was that U.S. troops were stationed in Saudi Arabia – “the land of the holy places.” Not Mecca itself. D’Souza insists that he’s not “an unqualified right-wing hack.” Should I take this to mean he knows all these facts and wrote what he did anyway?