Of Misinterpretations and Associations

It's quite hilarious when conservatives get all up-in-arms over issues that they obviously know nothing or dangerously little about.

Today's latest right-wing hissy-fit revolves around a statement made by Nuri al-Maliki regarding Barack Obama's plan of withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Hot Air captured the following passage from the English translation of Maliki’s Der Spiegel interview:

SPIEGEL: Would you hazard a prediction as to when most of the US troops will finally leave Iraq?

Maliki: As soon as possible, as far as we’re concerned. US presidential candidate Barack Obama is right when he talks about 16 months. Assuming that positive developments continue, this is about the same time period that corresponds to our wishes.

Here’s how the exchange reads now:

SPIEGEL: Would you hazard a prediction as to when most of the US troops will finally leave Iraq?

Maliki: As soon as possible, as far as we’re concerned. U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes.

There is no explanation of the rewrite.

Spiegel says: “SPIEGEL stands by its version of the conversation.” That’s great . . . but which one?

SHOCKING POSTSCRIPT: The L.A. Times ignores the earlier version — as does the rest of the world, apparently.

Nor does the L.A. Times report that Maliki’s office disputes the rewritten Spiegel translation.

The gloriously ignorant people over at Redstate are in it, as well as Allahpundit over at Malkin's appropriately named HotAir site.

What's interesting to note, is that all this righteous indignation ignores the fact that the translator was NOT employed by the magazine Spiegel, which ran the original article.

Who did the translator work for?

Nuri al Maliki, of course.

Oops.